Environmental and Climate Justice Lab

Introduction

The principles of the Environmental and Climate Justice Movements include distributive justice, with the goal of addressing inequalities on the basis of race, class, indigenous affiliation and disability in access to fresh air, clean water, and a safe play for children to play, and also procedural justice, or the right to self-determination. The Environmental and Climate Justice Lab will provide students with opportunities to represent community-based organizations in their efforts to address gross disparities in environmental benefits and burdens – and particularly the impacts of climate change. At the same time, the right to self-determination applies not only to government decision-making but also other players and stakeholders – industry officials proposing to place facilities with environmental impacts in proximity to already environmentally overburdened communities, scientists who study the environmental and health effects of pollution, and the lawyers who engage or represent communities. The Lab will also provide students with a hands-on opportunity to explore complex questions about community lawyering and the role of the lawyer in social change movements: for example, what role do lawyers play in movements that center communities as decision-makers? How can lawyers engage in case selection and other activities central to practice consistent with principles of community self-determination? How does community lawyering align with rules of ethics? These questions are all the more pressing as community-based organizations seek to advance justice in a quickly changing political context at local, state, and federal levels. The Lab docket will assist students in developing core lawyering skills, such as awareness of ethnical, cultural and professional issues, written and oral communication, interviewing clients and experts, drafting, legal analysis, negotiation, factual investigation, and developing, initiating, and resolving litigation.

Course Description

Fieldwork

Fieldwork is the heart of the Lab. The “docket,” or the complete list of matters that the Clinic is working on, will be distributed a few days before the first class. Students will be assigned to one or more matters in teams of 2 after the first seminar based on student preferences and staffing needs.

A weekly supervisory session will be scheduled for each matter, usually for half an hour per week. If a case is particularly active, more frequent sessions may be scheduled as needed. Supervision is the team’s time to use as its members think best. Supervisory feedback will be provided to encourage reflection on practice, build strong skills, ensure vigorous and high-quality representation of clients, and enhance the learning experience of each ECJ Lab student.  

During the months before the fall semester, five to eight projects will be identified.  These will include matters in different stages of development and requiring varying skills. In selecting projects, a number of factors will be considered, including the quality of the intellectual experience the students are likely to have working on the project, the opportunity afforded by the project to develop skills, the merits of the case, resources required, and whether the matter is aligned with the focus of the Lab on serving the EJ and Climate Justice Movements.  Consideration will also be given to logistics, such as the timeline for the matter and how deadlines coincide with student schedules, whether the Lab has or can develop the expertise required, and whether the matter is likely to have broad impacts beyond the parties to the case.  Projects will also include cases in development to provide students with the opportunity to gain practice skills.

The initial docket might include, for example:

• Technical assistance to and representation of community-based organizations working on legislation to advance or defend environmental or climate justice at the local, state, or federal level;
• Drafting comments on behalf of community-based stakeholders on rulemaking that would modify agency regulations pursuant to civil rights, environmental, or health and safety laws;
• Legal technical assistance and representation for community-based groups that received Environmental and Climate Justice grants pursuant to the Inflation Reduction Act that may be subject to inquiry by Congress or the Administration; and
• Representation of community groups seeking to develop and file administrative actions or litigation to challenge discrimination by environmental agencies.

Seminar

The seminar meets for 2 hours per week for 13 weeks. The seminar includes a mix of “black-letter law” classes, sessions focused on specific litigation and advocacy skills, and opportunities to workshop litigation theories and strategies. The skills-oriented classes do not occur in the start-to-finish sequence of a typical trial advocacy course, but rather are ordered to conform to what is happening in the Lab’s docket at a given time, and therefore, the syllabus may be adjusted throughout the semester to address developments in matters as they arise. Initial sessions will introduce students to the Environmental and Climate Justice Movements, applicable laws, and tools for factual investigation. Additional topics may then include client interviewing and counseling, developing case theory, settlement negotiations, brief-writing, media advocacy, oral argument (trial and appellate), direct/cross examination, depositions, discovery planning; regulatory, legislative, and media advocacy, drafting FOIA requests, or other topics. Attention in both the seminar and fieldwork will also be given to the interplay between litigation, organizing, public education, research, communication, policy, and other strategies.

Learning Outcomes

A list of learning objectives for the Clinic follows, though emphasis on specific learning objectives may vary with the particular cases on the fieldwork on the docket in any given semester:

• Develop awareness of ethical, cultural, and professional issues raised in providing legal representation and technical assistance to communities with environmental and climate justice concerns, including but not limited to challenges posed by racial, ethnic, and class boundaries.
• Gain knowledge of and engage with the Environmental and Climate Justice Movements, including their history and EJ principles, social justice issues, and relevant legal tools, including civil rights and environmental laws and policies;
• Develop skills needed to provide representation and, particularly, to represent, serve, and partner with communities with environmental and climate justice concerns; such skills may include, for example, building and sustaining client relationships, developing a factual record, conducting legal research and analysis, drafting legal documents, counseling clients and making oral presentations, working with experts, negotiating, strategically evaluating options, litigating, and developing communications strategies.
• Develop professional skills involved in building a legal practice, including but not limited to:
  • Evaluating and selecting cases;
  • Creating and implementing practice norms; and
  • Organizing and managing casework.
• Collaborate as part of a team, including but not limited to organizing and managing workload and conflict resolution; and
• Develop self-awareness through the practice of reflection.

Application Procedure

Students should submit the standard clinic application, resume and law school transcript using CAMS, the online application system. There is no interview, but the faculty and staff may contact students with questions regarding their applications.

Student Contacts

This is a new course, so there are no student contacts.

* 4 credits include 2 clinical credits and 2 academic seminar credits.