John Runkle who is a retired Attorney at Law. Over the many years, John shared his legal skills to many BREDL campaigns  – with communities all over North Carolina. Including landfills, coal ash, nuclear plants and more. Some fights were won, others lost, but John was there to make sure folks had legal protection against being trampled by polluters or various government agencies.

Our Executive Director, Lou Zeller has said “John’s the best environmental attorney in the state, bar none,” “What he understands that many attorneys do not is how community organizing campaigns work. He will tell you if that’s a bad idea and won’t work. When we do get into a campaign John is willing to work with us side by side.”

With John we discuss the BREDL campaigns he’s worked on, how to work with attorneys in grassroots campaigns, and challenges he’s seen in his work.

Contact and connect with John: [email protected]

Highlighting John’s work:

https://www.ncwarn.org/2018/12/john-runkle-celebrating-a-lifetime/

https://www.coastalreview.org/2014/07/coastal-sketch-john-runkle/

Attorneys in Grassroots Campaigns: https://www.grassrootslaw.org/