Oday Salim, PEAC Student

Since 1996, PEAC has trained over 200 attorneys, many of whom have gone on to make substantial contributions as advocates and leaders of local, regional, and national environmental advocacy organizations. Check out this recent interview with one of PEAC’s stellar students:

Degree: LL.M. ’09 (Environmental & Natural Resources Law)

Hometown: Detroit, Michigan

Background:
Wayne State University Law School (J.D. ’08)
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and Université de Poitiers (M.A. ’05)
Wayne State University (B.A. Spanish ’02)

Why Lewis & Clark?

My goal is to practice environmental law, so the decision to apply to the nation’s best environmental law program was easy. It helps that Lewis & Clark is in such a great city.

Why PEAC?

While obtaining my J.D., I accumulated lots of non-litigation experience such as legal research, moot court, law journal work, study abroad, etc. But I never actually worked at a law firm. Because I’m mainly interested in litigation, I needed some experience before heading to the job market. Much like the reputation of Lewis & Clark itself, PEAC had the reputation of being one the nation’s best legal clinics in general. I also got word that PEAC attorneys like to give their interns a great deal of leeway and responsibility, which, luckily, has turned out to be true.

What are you working on at PEAC?

Garbage. Seriously. All my assignments thus far have addressed the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, otherwise known as RCRA. RCRA is a complex statute that involves scientific and technical information, a heavy dosage of constantly changing rules, and connections with other environmental statutes like the Clean Water Act. RCRA was new to me, and the work has been very rewarding.

Favorite educational moment at PEAC?

My favorite educational moments at PEAC occur whenever I get an opportunity to experience my supervising attorney, Dan Mensher, at work. Knowing the laws and cases is necessary, but not sufficient. Would-be lawyers also need to witness attorneys at work behind the scenes. Working with Dan as he navigates the terrain of some tricky, complex lawsuits, has given me the kind of insight into environmental litigation that simply isn’t available in a lecture class or seminar. A great aspect of PEAC is that the attorneys don’t just assign tasks; they spend a significant amount of time teaching us the process of effective legal decision-making, the how’s and why’s behind each task.

Favorite non-educational moment at PEAC?

Volunteering to help prepare the meal for PEAC’s and NEDC’s holiday celebration and fundraiser was by far my favorite non-educational moment. Everyone from intern to board member gave their time. It was a great example of the unique sense of community that pervades the world of public interest environmental law.

How do you think your PEAC experience will impact your future goals?

PEAC will make all the difference for me. I chose Lewis & Clark in large part because of the existence of PEAC. It’s only a slight exaggeration to say that PEAC took me from being not hirable to hirable. Before PEAC, when I interviewed with law firms and similar employers, I could only guess at what litigation was and at my ability to succeed in it. After PEAC, I can walk into an interview with real litigation experience under my belt. Not just abstract legal research memos about the peripheries of the law, but actual work in the form of client letters, memos, briefs, discovery practice, etc. In addition, our weekly meetings, where attorneys and interns present their various cases, have functioned as great mini-seminars in specific areas of pre-trial, trial and appellate practice. Having produced so much work product, and having experienced so many great case presentations by my peers, I am definitely more confident about my skill set, my interview ability and my understanding of litigation.

What are your post-graduate goals?

My goal is to use my legal education and the skill set I obtained at PEAC in order to obtain a job doing environmental, natural resources and energy law. In the long term, I hope that I can put my experience to use by working on the side as an adjunct professor at a law school.