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The fifth Faculty Pub Night of the 2023-24 season features Dan Selmi, the Fritz B. Burns Professor of Real Property Law Emeritus at Loyola Law School, Los Angeles. He will discuss his recent publication, "Dawn at Mineral King Valley : the Sierra Club, the Disney Company, and the Rise of Environmental Law."

About Faculty Pub Night

Students, staff, faculty, alumni, and members of the public are all invited to the 2023-24 series of Faculty Pub Night at the William H. Hannon Library. Eight LMU professors are selected annually to discuss their latest publication or project in a comfortable setting and format that welcomes diverse perspectives for an inclusive conversation aimed to educate the entire community. All Faculty Pub Nights are free and open to the public.

About the Author's Work

Set against the backdrop of the environmental movement that swept the country in the late 1960s, Professor Dan Selmi’s book "Dawn at Mineral King Valley" recounts how the U.S. Forest Service, the Disney company, and the Sierra Club struggled to adapt to the new, rapidly changing political landscape of environmental consciousness. Proposed in 1965, Walt Disney’s vast development plan for a ski resort would have irreversibly altered the Mineral King Valley, a magnificent alpine area in the Sierra Nevada mountains. At first the plan met with unanimous approval from elected officials, government administrators, and the press. Then, after reversing its prior position approving the ski area, the Sierra Club filed a lawsuit. The litigation resulted in a U.S. Supreme Court decision that allowed interest groups to challenge environmentally destructive projects and opened the era of modern environmental law. Ultimately, the book recounts how Congress ended the national controversy by incorporating the valley into Sequoia National Park. Selmi’s talk will recount the fascinating story of the Mineral King
ski proposal, with its surprising twists and turns, and the fascinating characters involved.

About the Author

Daniel P. Selmi is the Fritz B. Burns Professor of Real Property Law Emeritus at Loyola Law School, Los Angeles. He specialized in Land Use Law, Environmental Law, and Appellate Advocacy. Prior to joining the faculty of the law school in 1983, Selmi was a lawyer in the Natural Resources Section of the California Attorney General’s Office, and was law clerk to the late Manuel L. Real, U.S. District Judge, Los Angeles. Selmi is the author of numerous law review articles and several books, including the two-volume treatise State Environmental Law. He co-edits the seven-volume treatise, California Environmental Law and Land Use Practice. Selmi is an elected member of the California Academy of Appellate Lawyers and was a recipient of a California Lawyer Attorney of the Year Award in 2011. He was the past chair of the State Bar Committee (now Section) on Environmental Law.

Additional Links

• LLS Faculty website
• Reviews of the book
• Review on Library Jounal

About the William H. Hannon Library

The William H. Hannon Library fosters excellence in academic achievement through an array of distinctive services that enable learners to feed their curiosity, experience new worlds, develop their ideas, inform their decision-making, and inspire others. More information can be found at http://library.lmu.edu

For more information about this event, contact the Outreach and Engagement team at the William H. Hannon library via email at library.outreach@lmu.edu or call 310-338-5234.