Leaders in Law Lecture

CEPLER is delighted to welcome a distinguished University of Birmingham alumnus to present the next lecture in the esteemed Leaders in Law series. Peter Kellett is Director of Legal Services for the Environment Agency for England. 

Peter is a solicitor who graduated from the University of Birmingham with an  environmental science degree and a masters in environmental law.  Peter has worked in the City, in Government on the design of environmental law and at the Environment Agency on much of its implementation including building and maintaining the nation’s flood risk assets on our rivers and coastline.  Peter's lecture is entitled 'From environmental science to environmental law – creating a career in a changing climate'.

Peter’s work has included:

•        Environmental regulation from the nuclear industry to fish protection to carbon mitigation;
•        Creating the main environmental permitting regime for England and Wales;
•        Implementing a shift from blunt criminal sanctions to alternate civil sanctions;
•        Red tape challenges;
•        Creating a new environmental body for Wales;
•        EU Exit and Transition so our domestic environmental laws still work;
•        How a large organisation (10,000 staff and £1.7bn turnover) that builds concrete things like the Thames Barrier can reach Net Zero;
•        Covid19 and managing its impact on the above; and
•        Environmental, Social and Governance issues as a pension fiduciary managing £4bn of assets.

He leads an in-house legal team providing a full range of operational, regulatory and advisory services. 

Peter is a former trustee and chair of the UK Environmental Law Association (www.ukela.org) 2001- 2011.  Peter was then a trustee and chair of St Werburghs City Farm in Bristol until September 2018. He has contributed to the debate about environmental law over many years, for example, recently for the Journal of Environmental Law “Securing High Levels of Business Compliance with Environmental Laws: What Works and What to Avoid”.