By Alex Dalton
“I’ve always personally been interested in the environment,” Rachel Schwartz, an attorney at the Conservation Law Center, told The Times. “But what I’ve wanted to do in my career is support access to justice for people who have been in some way excluded or disadvantaged in our justice system. And I think in Northwest Indiana, there’s a way that I can bring those two interests together.”
The Bloomington-based nonprofit that she works for provides free legal services to advocacy groups and individual community members with environmental concerns.
Schwartz graduated from the University of Chicago law and public policy dual degree program in the spring and joined CLC through a University of Chicago Law School Public Service Fellowship.
The organization’s Northwest Indiana operation, which focuses on Gary, East Chicago,
Hammond and Whiting, had previously been a one-man enterprise run by veteran attorney
Michael Zoeller. Having Schwartz on board, Zoeller told The Times, has been a major step up
for CLC’s capabilities in the Region.
Since joining CLC early last year, Zoeller has tackled a variety of local environmental issues. He
is currently representing the activist and Gary resident Gary Lee in a lawsuit against the Little
Calumet River Basin Development Commission.
Lee sued the commission in August 2025, alleging, among other claims, that the body’s then-
ongoing lease agreement with Merrillville-based Maya Energy violated the commission’s
statutory-defined purpose. The company planned to build a waste-to-feedstock processing
facility on a plot of commission-owned land on 35th Avenue in Gary.
Lee also claimed that the commission had violated Indiana’s Open Door Law by discussing
improper topics in closed executive sessions and that two of its members were legally ineligible
for their seats.
A Lake County judge sided with the commission on all three claims, finding that the body did
not break the law. Lee brought the case to the Indiana Court of Appeals, where the matter is
awaiting a ruling.
The end of Maya Energy’s Gary development ambitions in October, which the company’s co-
owner blamed on a noncooperative city administration, marked a significant victory for the
project’s critics. It does not necessarily mean, however, that litigation on the subject is over.
On Oct. 23, the commission voted to terminate its agreement with Maya Energy, and Nov. 10,
the body filed to have Lee’s appeal partially dismissed on the basis that his complaint about the
lease had been rendered moot. In a response filed on Lee’s behalf, Zoeller wrote that the court should still rule on the issue “because it raises an issue of great public importance likely to
recur.”
“It’s not just Mr. Lee,” Zoeller said. “There’s plenty of other people who care about making the
commission more transparent and accountable and keeping it close to its statutory purposes.”
Litigation is only a small part of the work that CLC does. Much of Zoeller and Schwartz’s time is
spent on lower-profile activities — fielding questions from concerned community members,
reviewing environmental records and lobbying permitting authorities.
Last year, CLC joined a coalition of environmental groups working on behalf of East Chicago
residents who sought stricter state oversight for a local waste processor with a history of
violating environmental regulations. Schwartz, then a law student, participated in the effort as
part of the University of Chicago’s Abrams Environmental Law Clinic. The Indiana Department
of Environmental Management acknowledged the input it had received from the groups when it
added more stringent provisions to a renewed operating permit for the facility.