Environmental Law & Policy Clinic
The Environmental Law and Policy Clinic (ELPC) provides students opportunities to engage with critical environmental, climate, and energy issues. By providing legal assistance in policy and advocacy efforts, the ELPC supports legislators, government agencies, nonprofit organizations, private clients, and citizens groups. Through this hands-on experience, students gain the skills needed to excel in the quickly evolving fields of environmental and energy law and are empowered to enhance the quality of life in our communities.
Through drafting of comment letters and whitepapers, advising legislators, and preparing materials for administrative proceedings, students get into the weeds of creating, implementing, and challenging laws. Students interact with engineers, scientists, and other experts on contamination clean-ups, policymaking, regulatory compliance, environmental justice and citizen enforcement matters.
Student casework in the ELPC has included:
- Interpreting the impact of proposed changes to federal drinking water regulations,
- Providing support for administrative proceedings regarding distributed generation and grid modernization,
- Establishing an energy policy agenda for a state agency,
- Analyzing the post-Chevron legal landscape for legislators,
- Supporting municipalities in climate adaptation policies,
- Participating in public hearings, lobbying meetings, developing white papers and drafting legislation in collaboration with legislators’ offices.
The case work in the ELPC requires a minimum of 13 hours per week outside of class and supervision meetings. Depending on the needs of clients, students may have client meetings, events, or work in the evenings and on weekends.
Students also participate in a 2-credit weekly seminar covering substantive environmental and energy law and lawyering skills. Students learn from and network with attorneys from state and federal agencies, advocacy organizations, lobbying firms, the state legislature, and private practice.
The ELCP prepares students for leadership roles in environmental and energy law, linking them with alumni mentors, and hosting career-oriented programming in collaboration with the Office of Professional and Career Development and the Environmental Law Society Through this experience, students build their network in the Boston-area and learn of potential career paths in this field.
A student must have successfully completed or be concurrently enrolled in Evidence in order to qualify for certification under Supreme Judicial Court's Student Practice Rule 3:03. We recommend that students take an environmental law course and/or administrative law prior to applying for the ELPC.
If you have any questions, please contact Visiting Assistant Clinical Professor Robert Cox ([email protected]) and Practitioner-in-Residence Cara Libman ([email protected]).