Emily Ertel
Senior Attorney
Based in SELC’s Nashville office, Emily to protect Tennessee’s streams and rivers from industrial pollution, especially in West and Middle Tennessee, and works to protect the Memphis community from environmental pollution.
“SELC has used the wisdom of the people and places of the south to become a nationally recognized leader in environmental protection,” Emily said when asked what motivates her work. “SELC doesn’t hesitate to tackle complex environmental issues and try to find practical solutions that protect southern communities and environments.”
Emily has deep roots protecting the environment in her home state of Wisconsin. She worked for the Wisconsin Department of Justice for nine years, where her duties included bringing civil enforcement cases for violations of the state’s environmental laws. These lawsuits involved unauthorized discharges of wastewater from large dairy farms, and sought compensation for fish kills caused by these discharges.
Her work on dairy farms and their related waste earned her multiple recognitions from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.
As a high school student, Emily traveled to the Blue Ridge Mountains in western North Carolina for a YMCA national youth government gathering. “It was so beautiful, and as someone from the flat Midwest, I fell in love with the beautiful, forested mountains,” she said.
With that experience in mind, Emily added that she is “most excited to work on protecting clean water for all Tennesseans. I’m also very excited to spend my free time exploring Tennessee and our larger six-state region.”
- Wisconsin Department of Justice, Public Protection Unit, assistant attorney general
- Godfrey & Kahn, S.C., attorney
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of General Counsel, honors fellow
- J.D., Drake University Law School, with honors; Drake Law Review, articles editor
- B.S., University of Wisconsin—Stevens Point