By Erin Reid P’01,’05

Stuart Gillespie ’01 welcomes the opportunity to fight for the environment every chance he gets. He serves as a staff attorney at Earthjustice, based in Denver, CO, and while he specializes in protecting public lands and wildlife, much of his work focuses on waterways. “These waterways are often at the center of our communities and ecosystems,” he explains. “As temperatures rise, water supplies shrink, which can and is causing a cascade of problems across the West. And we’re probably only seeing the tip of the iceberg.”

Gillespie entered Hotchkiss as a lower mid, joining two of his best friends already there. “It was special to spend three more years with them. We’d been together since preschool. Hotchkiss was a challenge, though, both in academics and sports—exactly what I needed.”

The natural environment surrounding Hotchkiss felt like the polar opposite of New York City, where Gillespie was raised. “What a beautiful place! At Hotchkiss, I explored the outdoors, running on every trail I could find as part of the cross-country team.” He sustained an injury during his senior year, which led him to borrow a friend’s road bike to cross-train. “Soon, I was riding the Housatonic hills and Berkshire mountains around School.”

He matriculated at Harvard, where he earned an A.B. in economics (cum laude) while minoring in French. He stayed active in cycling, making the U.S. national team, and moved to Europe to race road bikes. This led to a contract racing for a professional cycling team. “That journey started in the Northwest Corner of Connecticut at the intersection of Interlaken and Sharon roads,” he said.

While Gillespie was racing, he read A Civil Action, a story about a young lawyer fighting against two corporate giants in a high-stakes environmental lawsuit. “The book holds out the promise of a legal system that can protect communities and the environment by bringing polluters to justice. It is also a cautionary tale about the shortcomings in the system and just how difficult it is to obtain justice. That challenge inspired me.”

After retiring from racing, he went to law school to study environmental law. “Now, I still get the thrill of competition, albeit in court,” he said. “A big difference is that I now compete for someone else—my clients. That’s immensely rewarding.”

Hotchkiss unexpectedly helped to define his trajectory within environmental law. “I read a 2016 Alum of the Month profile on Erik Grafe ’92 and his work with Earthjustice, Alaska. Erik spoke passionately about his work and how he used his Hotchkiss education to help protect the environment. That resonated with me, and a few months later, I applied for a job opening at Earthjustice. I have since tried to live up to that ideal.”

Gillespie gives the Great Salt Lake in Utah as an example of the critical importance of waterways. “It is the largest saline lake in the Western hemisphere, supporting a dazzling array of over 10 million birds. The lake, however, has declined precipitously in recent years due to excessive upstream diversions of water that deprive the lake of its life-sustaining flows. If it continues to shrink, the ecosystem will collapse, threatening one of North America’s largest migratory bird colonies. It will also precipitate a public health crisis,” cautions Gillespie. “As water levels recede, mercury and arsenic in the lakebed—once safely underwater but now above ground—are sent into the air each time strong winds blow. That dust blows into the Wasatch Front, home to over 2 million Utah residents. One Republican lawmaker said the state is sitting on ‘an environmental nuclear bomb’ if state officials don’t take appropriate action.”

He continued, “We filed a lawsuit in 2023 on behalf of community health groups who argue that the state has violated its obligation to protect the lake under the public trust doctrine. Earthjustice is using the law to force Utah to take action to protect this tremendous resource. It’s a compelling case that builds on legal precedent to protect an iconic place and the public health of millions.” 

As another example, Colorado is at the forefront of protecting the waterways and wetlands, vital to the state’s ecosystems and communities, and has taken a lead role in responding to the recent rollback of critical federal protections.

“Two years ago, the Supreme Court severely curtailed the Clean Water Act, exposing hundreds of thousands of miles of streams and millions of acres of wetlands to much greater risk of destruction. Colorado stepped into that regulatory void and passed legislation to create its own program for protecting streams and wetlands. That was a crucial step forward, and Earthjustice will continue to play a role in ensuring the success of Colorado’s program,” he said. “But Colorado is only one of 50 states. Federal environmental laws like the Clean Water Act are critical and have protected our nation’s waters for over 50 years; it is the legal framework behind the clean water we all drink. Now, more than ever, we need to stand up for our environmental laws and strengthen them so that we have the legal tools to address future challenges.”

According to Gillespie, long-standing legal principles are being defied. He says that Earthjustice is paying attention. “Between 2016 and 2020, no organization filed more environmental lawsuits than Earthjustice, and we often won. We are, and will, continue to do this.”

He credits Hotchkiss for helping to define his path. “The School helped me with every aspect of writing; taught me how to think logically and to explain my thoughts; showed me how to work with and listen to others; and taught me how to persevere and do the best I can. I’m thankful to the fabulous teachers who shaped my time there, who so often went above and beyond to help their students. I’m also thankful to my parents, who supported me in my decision to go to Hotchkiss. Now that I’m a parent, it’s tough to imagine my kids (Ellherie, Finn, and Gwyn) leaving home.”