2023 Attorneys of the Year: E. Phillips Neighborhood Inst. v. City of Minneapolis

Frank Jossi//February 9, 2024//

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From left: Elizabeth Royal, Hudson Kingston, Jessica Blome, Jordan Hughes and Miles Ringsred

A battle over the fate of a Minneapolis city works facility in the East Phillips neighborhood has ended after more than a decade of protest and debate.

The East Phillips Neighborhood Institute (EPNI) and other community activists in the low-income BIPOC neighborhood have been behind an effort to fight the city of Minneapolis from demolishing the arsenic-laden Roof Depot warehouse and to redevelop the site into a public works yard. A judge halted the city’s demolition plan in February 2023, giving EPNI time to successfully lobby the Legislature to allocate $7.7 million for it to buy the property.

St. Paul-based attorney Elizabeth Royal has served as EPNI’s counsel for several years. The former Red Lake tribal judge said she knew little about environmental law when she began working with EPNI during the COVID-19 pandemic. “In the beginning, it was a couple of law clerks and myself during COVID working out in my backyard with masks on under two umbrellas,” Royal said. “I had a small printer on my garden table.”

Over the years, Royal has recruited plenty of talent to help with the dispute’s legal aspects and create a future operating structure for Roof Depot, including Hudson Kingston, Jordan Hughes, Miles Ringsred, and Jessica Blome.

EPNI and community members have developed a vision for the site calling for affordable housing, an indoor farm, a skills training center, a youth development program and a solar garden.

It’s that kind of collaboration with the neighborhood that continues to impress Royal. “The reason why I represent EPNI is because they stand for the community,” she said.

Read more about Minnesota Lawyer’s superb class of Attorneys of the Year for 2023 here.