Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – author, environmental activist and accomplished environmental attorney – will deliver the commencement address to the graduates of the University of Nebraska College of Law at 3 p.m. May 9 at the Lied Center for Performing Arts.
“We are honored to welcome Mr. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to Lincoln,” said Susan Poser, dean of the law college. “He is a renowned advocate for environmental causes in the legal and political arenas, particularly involving water rights. These issues are relevant to Nebraska today and this is why Mr. Kennedy was the choice of the graduating class to be the commencement speaker.”
The son of former U.S. Sen. and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, he is a professor of environmental law at Pace University and is co-director of the school’s Environmental Litigation Clinic. He also is president of Waterkeeper Alliance, a group of grassroots organizations dedicated to protect rivers, lakes, bays, sounds and other bodies of water around the world.
Kennedy negotiated the New York City watershed agreement on behalf of environmentalists and New York City watershed consumers. The agreement is regarded as an international model in stakeholder consensus negotiations and sustainable development.
Kennedy was named one of TIME’s “Heroes for the Planet” for his success in helping Riverkeeper, New York’s clean water advocate, restore the Hudson River. The group’s achievement helped in the creation of more than 160 Waterkeeper organizations worldwide. In 2009, he was among Rolling Stone’s “100 Agents of Change.”
Among his published books are the New York Times bestseller “Crimes Against Nature” (2004); “The Riverkeepers” (1997); and “Judge Frank M. Johnson Jr: A Biography” (1977). His articles have appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Rolling Stone, Atlantic Monthly, Esquire, The Nation, Outside magazine, the Village Voice, and many other publications.
A graduate of Harvard University, Kennedy studied at the London School of Economics and earned his law degree from the University of Virginia. Following graduation, he attended Pace University School of Law, where he earned a master’s degree in environmental law.
