Welcome to the Energy and Mineral Law Foundation (EMLF), a national nonprofit educational organization that fosters the study of energy, mineral and natural resources law and provides opportunities for professional development and career networking among lawyers, law students, and other professionals practicing within this exciting and ever-changing field. Having just celebrated our 40th year, EMLF is moving forward with purpose and vision as we seek to meet the needs of our members in an ever more relevant and timely manner.

At our Board of Trustees meeting in Washington, D.C., in June 2019, EMLF adopted an exciting new Strategic Plan that charts our course for the next few years. It focuses on our core priorities, as we seek to achieve continued excellence in professional education, expand the field of professionals who look to EMLF as a primary source of education and collegial dialogue, support the scholarly efforts of law students and law professors, and promote high standards of professionalism and collegiality among legal practitioners and professionals in the energy sector.

In the coming months, we will be implementing specific actions identified by our members to advance our four core Strategic Plan goals:

• Value: We seek to better understand the needs and interests of our current members, as well as prospective new customers, members and stakeholders, as we build a greater community of energy and legal professionals. As the Strategic Plan states, “It’s a new EMLF!”
• Structure: We will be evaluating EMLF’s structure, governance and staffing to better understand what’s possible for our organization, to identify current impediments to participation, and to create pathways for emerging leaders and mentorship within EMLF.
• Sustainability and Stewardship: As we evaluate change within the organization, we will look for better ways to engage existing and new members, create an inclusive and diverse environment, and create a whole new member experience.
• Education: Professional education is at the heart of what we do as a 501(c)(3) organization. We seek to deliver that educational content at the times and places and in the manner that is best suited to our members’ diverse needs and the evolving energy marketplace.

On behalf of the entire leadership of EMLF, I invite you to join us as we seek to reinvent the EMLF and ensure that we can continue to play an important role in educating our nation’s energy legal practitioners and professionals for another 40 years.

I have had the opportunity to spend the vast majority of my 25-year legal career practicing energy law, and it has been a distinct honor to spend most of the past 20 years working with so many dedicated, capable, and downright enjoyable folks within the EMLF. Despite the occasional differences we may have in our “day jobs,” I have come to deeply value the advice, support, and friendship of so many EMLF friends. Being elected to serve as President for 2019-2020 is a gratifying culmination of that work, and I hope to serve each of you well in the coming months.

Thanks to each of you who have given of yourselves to this organization through speaking, writing, mentoring, organizing, and sharing. You are part of the 40-year success that is EMLF. And to those who have not yet shared in this work, please take this opportunity to attend one of our conferences, volunteer to speak or write, join a committee, or mentor a law student. Through your efforts, the next 40 years will be an even greater success, and you will become part of the new EMLF.