Curtis Vandermolen

Curtis Vandermolen joined the firm's Sacramento, California office in 2020 after graduating magna cum laude from McGeorge School of Law. Mr. Vandermolen's family are enrolled members of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. Mr. Vandermolen has experience working in tribal environmental law with the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission and received a certificate of concentration in water and environmental law from McGeorge.

Mr. Vandermolen served as a member of the Board of Directors for the California Indian Law Association from 2021 to 2022. He also served as a member of the Anthony M. Kennedy Inn of Court in 2019-2020, and as a member of the Board of Directors for the Capital Fellows Alumni Association from 2006 to 2008. Mr. Vandermolen has published legal research about incorporating traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) in environmental analyses.

Before attending law school, Mr. Vandermolen served as Deputy Director at the California Transportation commission leading research and policy for sustainable infrastructure funding under a transition to clean-energy transportation models. He also served as Senior Consultant to the California State Assembly from 2009 to 2017.

Honors:

• Traynor Honor Society
• Accelerated Honors Program

Legal Authorship:

• Challenging NEPA Documents with TEK: Indigenous perspectives are vital to a reasoned choice among alternatives, California Indian Law Association Legal Journal, 17 (2020)
• Maintaining Confidentiality for Traditional Ecological Knowledge Obtained from Indigenous Nations: Overcoming the presumption of public disclosure, California Indian Law Association Legal Journal (2021; pending publication).