Legal Fellows

Erin Hogan-Fremole grew up in the Willamette Valley and graduated from the University of Oregon with a B.S. in Environmental Sciences. She first became interested in fire ecology and forest management as a result of the Biscuit post-fire timber sale in southern Oregon. Erin subsequently spent eight years as a wildland firefighter, a job that took her to remote and wild areas across the western United States.

In 2020 Erin received her J.D. from the University of Colorado, where she had the opportunity to work with Earthjustice, the New Mexico Environmental Law Center, and the Wilderness Society. She joined Crag Law Center in September 2021 after a clerkship with the Alaska State Supreme Court. Erin is delighted to be back in Oregon, where she enjoys hiking, camping, paddling, running, and drinking coffee.

Teryn Yazdani joined Crag as a Legal Fellow in September 2020. In February 2020, Teryn was named one of Lewis & Clark Law School’s first Diehl Environmental Law Fellows; this fellowship was awarded to only four law students who sought specifically to pursue careers in public interest environmental law work.

Born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi, Teryn earned a B.A. in Anthropology and Environmental Studies from Tulane University in New Orleans. During her time at Lewis & Clark Law School, Teryn gained experience as a student volunteer and project coordinator with the Northwest Environmental Defense Center and as a student clinician with Earthrise Law Center. In addition to working at Crag as Summer Associate after her second year of law school, she also stayed on to work at Crag as a Legal Extern during the fall semester of her final year.

Teryn graduated from Lewis & Clark with a J.D. and a certificate in Environmental and Natural Resource Law. She now joins the Crag Law Center team as a Legal Fellow.

“I am so grateful for the opportunity to come back to Crag as their legal fellow and have the chance to work alongside such a talented group of passionate environmental lawyers. I had always hoped that, upon graduating law school, I would be able to use my degree to advocate for the future of the environment—there is no better place than Crag to learn how to do just that! I’m so proud to be a part of a legal team that not only succeeds in showing up for the environment but also for the community.”

Anu Sawkar joined our team as the Coastal Law Project Fellow in January 2019. Anu volunteered with Crag in 2009 prior to earning her J.D. at Cornell Law School and returned to intern with Crag’s Development office in 2017 before joining our staff as a legal fellow. As the Coastal Law Project fellow, Anu works with Oregon Shores Conservation Coalition and coastal residents to preserve public access to our beaches and protect our coastal ecosystems. One of the biggest issues she currently works on is helping coastal communities challenge the proposed Jordan Cove LNG facility in Coos Bay, Oregon.

In 2020, Anu joined Crag’s legal team as an Associate Attorney and now manages the Coastal Law Project as well as working on a variety of other legal matters.

Ka’sha Bernard joined the team as our Legal Fellow in the fall of 2018. As a former Summer Associate (2017), Ka’sha applied for and was awarded a fellowship from Notre Dame Law School to work at Crag for two years following her graduation from law school. During her time at Crag, Ka’sha helped us stand with communities, fighting on issues ranging from freeway expansion to fossil fuel pipeline development. She worked with all of our staff attorneys to gain experience across a variety of legal issues including environmental justice, wetlands protection, and climate policy.

“I’m super grateful to have kicked off my career at Crag. I was fortunate to work on an abundance of issues and projects that I enjoyed and learned from right out of law school. I grew a lot as a person and as a member of the legal community. I enjoyed working with a team of smart, passionate, hard-working people willing to push me and help me come into my own in this work.”

What made the experience the most valuable were the many opportunities to work on different projects and assignments in various capacities.

“I got to do everything from tabling at events and ordering food for volunteers, to guest lecturing at the law school, to writing briefs and presenting at oral argument.”

Ka’sha now works as a Staff Attorney at the Center for International Environmental Law in Washington, D.C. where she works with frontline communities on the Gulf Coast and Appalachia who are fighting fossil fuel development of plastic infrastructure.

We hired Scott Hilgenberg in March 2017 as Crag’s Land Use Fellow. A former Crag Summer Associate (2011), Scott earned his J.D. from Lewis & Clark Law School. Scott came to Crag a with a strong background in land use law, having worked as a Staff Attorney for Oregon’s Land Use Board of Appeals for over two years prior to joining Crag.

Scott worked with Crag Law Center staff to expand our capacity to address the wide variety of land use issues throughout Oregon, with a particular focus on the rural parts of our state. During his time at Crag, Scott collaborated with the 1000 Friends of Oregon “circuit rider” to re-invigorate and support the work of local community groups in our three initial focus regions – Columbia River and coastal port communities, southern Oregon’s Rogue and Illinois river valleys, and central/eastern Oregon. As part of this work, Scott met with non-profit leaders throughout Oregon in an effort to better understand the challenges faced by rural and minority communities. He organized workshops with communities across Oregon to educate local leaders and community members about meaningful engagement with local governments to ensure that community land use interests are protected. During his fellowship, Scott also represented clients in opposing the rezoning of agricultural land and defending the City of Portland’s landmark fossil fuel ordinance that limits bulk fuel storage in the city.

Following his time at Crag, Scott went on to work as the Rural Lands Legislative Attorney for 1000 Friends of Oregon. Scott was part of the Rural Lands team, and focuses on guiding development of land use legislative and rulemaking agendas on issues of farm, forest, and natural resources. He advocated for progressive land use policies, defends against threats to rural land protections, and engages in strategic litigation in support of 1000 Friends’ policy goals. Scott worked with local activists and affiliates by providing technical assistance on local and state-wide land use issues.

Emma Bruden joined Crag staff as a Legal Fellow soon after earning her J.D. from Lewis & Clark Law School. As a Legal Fellow, Emma gained experience across several areas of federal and state environmental law.

“There are so many great things to say about my time at Crag!  One of the most valuable aspects of my fellowship was the development of my litigation skills under the guidance and mentoring of Crag’s expert environmental litigators. I draw upon my training from Crag nearly every day to help me work as a public interest environmental litigator.”

During her time at Crag, Emma focused on forest and public lands law and on air toxics law and policy. She participated in the pre-litigation process, submitting objections and Freedom of Information Act requests to an administrative agency related to an off-highway vehicle trail project. Working on the Klamath National Wildlife Refuge Case, Emma prepared and filed a complaint regarding management of national wildlife refuges. She prepared and filed a “motion to intervene” in the related agri-business lawsuit. Doing this secured her first legal victory as the court granted the motion allowing our clients to assert their conservation interests in the agri-business suit. 

In addition to her forest and public lands cases, Emma advised clients who are involved in the State of Oregon’s creation of new regulations for industrial air toxics. Her work included protecting natural resources in forests and public lands utilizing a wide array of federal laws such as the National Environmental Policy Act, National Forest Management Act and Freedom of Information Act. 

Emma also took an active role in Crag’s communications and fundraising work. As part of this organizational work, she developed social media campaigns to highlight Crag’s program work, wrote content for Crag’s newsletters, assisted with grant proposals and served on the planning team for Crag’s annual gala fundraiser.

In 2018, Emma joined Kampmeier & Knutsen as an associate attorney where she provides expert legal representation to organizations and individuals seeking to protect the environment. Forest law has become Emma’s passion, and she loves working to protect our nation’s critters and their habitats!

In 2013 Maura became a Legal Fellow performing diverse work ranging from sewage treatment violations leading to poor water quality in Molalla, farmland protection in Port Westward and the Mountain View Paving asphalt plant cases. Maura also worked in several other Clean Water Act enforcement cases, Environmental Species Act listing cases and a variety of land use matters. 

“I couldn’t think of a better way to have started out my legal career than as a fellow at Crag. Working with Crag’s attorneys and clients provided me with exposure to a variety of environmental issues and confirmed for me that this is my dream job!” 

Maura was hired on as a Staff Attorney to continue working on land use challenges in Southern Oregon’s Rogue Valley, federal administrative law, as well as Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act enforcement.