Elena Mihaly is a Staff Attorney working in CLF’s Clean Air and Water Program and Resilient Communities Program. Elena’s work focuses on developing and implementing law and policy solutions to protect public health, enhance community climate preparedness, and ensure all communities have equal access to a clean and healthy environment. Before assuming the role of Staff Attorney, Elena was a Legal Fellow for two years at CLF working in the Healthy Communities and Environmental Justice Program, where she helped launch CLF’s Legal Food Hub, a project connecting farmers and food businesses with lawyers who have agreed to provide free legal services related to business law matters.
Elena received her J.D., summa cum laude, and Masters in Environmental Law and Policy from Vermont Law School, where she was articles editor on the Vermont Law Review. Elena holds a B.A. in Environmental Science from Colorado College. Elena is licensed to practice in Vermont, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts.
When she’s not fulfilling her CLF duties, Elena is managing her 120-acre farm and forest property in Norwich, Vermont, or exploring the natural world through climbing, skiing, or trail running with her husband and her cattle dog.
Recent Posts
Oct 3 2018
Pollution from stormwater runoff is one of the biggest threats to clean water in New England. A new statewide rule could clean up Vermont’s waters by improving how we handle stormwater. Stormwater runoff happens when rain falls on pavement rather than soil. Instead of being absorbed into the ground, it gains speed as it runs off, resulting…
Aug 13 2018
If someone had told me last spring that the August forecast for Vermont showed seven days above 90 degrees, I wouldn’t have believed them. Yet in Burlington last month my thermometer read, day after day: 91, 94, 99, 97, 95, 97, and 96. Since then, we’ve seen the temperatures soar past 90 degrees again and…
May 14 2018
Harvey. Irma. Maria. Nate. Last year, during a 45-day period, eight consecutive named storms strengthened into hurricanes. All told, the 2017 hurricane season was the most expensive in history, causing more than $200 billion in damage nationwide. Meanwhile, so-called 100-year floods are becoming so common the metric is losing its meaning and utility. For instance,…
Jan 30 2018
In 2013, a two-day downpour struck the Chicago area, causing massive flooding, overflowing sewers, and millions of dollars in property damage. After the clean-up, Farmers Insurance company filed a landmark class action lawsuit against the Water Reclamation District for greater Chicago on behalf of its policyholders and other property insurance companies affected by the flooding.…
Nov 2 2017
This past summer and fall, Vermonters saw firsthand the disastrous impacts of too much phosphorus pouring into Lake Champlain. Favorite swimming beaches closed and toxic blue-green algae coated portions of the lake in a stinky slime. The State of Vermont has a plan to reduce phosphorus pollution into our iconic lake. But in a head-scratching…
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