Detroit attorney R. Craig Hupp, whose practice focuses on environmental law, recently shared his expertise with Wayne State University Law School’s Transnational Environmental Law Clinic students as they analyzed the proposed I-94 highway widening project.
Hupp helped Kyle Bruckner, a second-year student from Royal Oak, and Cody Attisha, a third-year student from Novi on the project, which aims to address potential environmental issues related to the proposed expansion. The law clinic and affiliated nonprofit Great Lakes Environmental Law Center, as well as various community and environmental groups, have concerns about the $2.7 billion state proposal to expand I-94 through the center of Midtown Detroit. The project was proposed in the 1990s, and the concerned parties believe a new environmental assessment should be completed to take into account changes that have taken place since, including population trends, vehicle miles traveled, regional transportation and public transit. They also say the project’s original environmental analysis, completed more than a decade ago, failed to include community health aspects, climate change and environmental justice concerns.
A 1983 Wayne Law alumnus, Hupp, of Grosse Pointe, is a noted environmental attorney with Bodman PLC and a registered professional engineer. He earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Virginia, and a master’s degree in traffic and transport from the University of New South Wales in Australia, where he and his wife lived for 2 ½ years. He worked for national consulting engineering firms and the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments before going to law school.
Assistant Clinical Professor Nick Schroeck, who directs the clinic and is executive director of the environmental law center, said he is grateful for attorneys like Hupp who give back to the community and the profession.
“I would like to thank him for his generosity volunteering in the clinic this semester and for his willingness to continue to help us out in the future,” he said.
Hupp, who previously served as a Wayne Law adjunct professor teaching environmental law, said that giving back is a worthy and rewarding endeavor.
“I like to work with students and think I have something to offer in terms of writing and advocacy skills,” he said. “In a corporate practice, I have few opportunities to work on public interest environmental matters. Assisting students in the clinic creates an opportunity to do so.”
Hupp will become new counsel with Bodman on Jan. 1 and plans to continue to volunteer with the environmental law clinic.
-Eisha Vatsal, Robert Mathis, and Lynn Ingram contributed to this story.
Published May 16, 2016