Lewis & Clark Law School’s Summer 2024 courses offer a comprehensive mix of online and in-person options, welcoming law students from all institutions to enrich their legal education and advance their career pathways.

Deadline: May 31, 2024

This Earth Day, Clinical Professor Erica Lyman explains why it will take global action to protect wild animals from the harmful effects of plastics.

For Lewis & Clark Law School, Earth Day isn’t a once-a-year event—it’s a daily mission. Explore the ongoing environmental endeavors of our faculty and students:

Lewis & Clark Law School’s 9th annual Environmental Law Spring Symposium, “Animal Agriculture and Climate Change — The Really Big Cow In The Room,” convened experts to discuss the urgent need to address the adverse impacts of industrial animal agriculture on climate change. Nicholas Kristof, of NY Times, gave the keynote address.

Professor Lisa Benjamin co-authored briefs to the International Court of Justice and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea to establish state obligations around climate change as part of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. Clinic students supported the effort.

Please join us to celebrate Earth Day every day in April.

GEI and Sierra Club join together to file two separate amicus briefs arguing that processes overseen by the Public Utility Commission end in final orders that are subject to appeal.

Ian Connolly JD ’25 is one of two Wyss Scholars selected from Lewis & Clark Law School in 2024. The Wyss Foundation is a dedicated to land conservation. Ian plans to to leverage his education on behalf of wild places and communities across the west. 

Hayden Wyatt JD ’25 is one of two Wyss Scholars selected from Lewis & Clark Law School in 2024. The Wyss Foundation is a private, charitable foundation dedicated to land conservation. This summer Hayden will work for Cascadia Wildlands, with an internship focused on forest conservation.

Earthrise’s team filed its Motion for Summary Judgment on behalf of its client, the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance (BRWA) to halt the Robert’s Gap Project, a large logging project, in the Ozark-St. Francis National Forests of Arkansas.

Environmental, Natural Resources, & Energy Law LLM alum Ayman Irfan’s ’23, one of the first women environmental lawyers from Pakistan, wrote an article advocating for forest policy in Pakistan that was published on the American Bar Association’s Section on Environment, Energy, and Resources website.

Read a helpful explanation of the Public Utility Commission’s order concluding Oregon’s electricity decarbonization law does not require the retirement of renewable energy certificates.

Read about GEI’s work on HB 2021, wildfire liability, and post-California Restaurant Ass’n v. Berkeley pathways.

Professor Michele Okoh’s article, entitled Forgotten Watersand published in the Georgetown Law Journal, has been selected as one of the top twenty articles of 2023 by the Environmental Law Reporter.

Watch the recording here.

Director and Staff Attorney Carra Sahler offered her thoughts about the effect on building decarb efforts after the Ninth Circuit’s decision invalidating Berkeley’s natural gas ban in buildings. Read the interview here.

Lewis & Clark’s Green Energy Institute has been awarded the Bob Olsen Memorial Conservation Eagle Award by the NW Energy Coalition.

Major General William Anders sat down with NASA’s Chief Scientist and Senior Climate Adviser to discuss his famous Earthrise photo, the basis of our name and an image that we continue to take inspiration and motivation from.

After 16 years as WRLC’s founding executive director and supervising attorney, Caroline Lobdell has stepped down. She leaves behind a rich legacy.

Professor Jessie Barrington takes the helm as the new Executive Director of the Western Resources Legal Center, succeeding Professor Caroline Lobdell after her impactful 15-year tenure.

Read GEI’s Newsletter summarizing some of its work this year.

Critical Tool Could Save Imperiled Species

Nick Fromherz, Latin American Program Director for the Global Law Alliance for Animals & the Environment and Adjunct Professor at Lewis & Clark Law School, talks with the Peruvian newspaper Ojo Público about conflicts between industrial fisheries, oil and gas activities, and civil and political actors over the creation of a new marine protected area in Peru.

Lewis & Clark ranked No. 37 in the Princeton Review’s list of the nation’s most environmentally responsible colleges and universities.

Drew Baloga, who took the Earthrise clinic last year and then worked with us as a summer clerk, argued in front of the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco last week. Drew presented oral argument on behalf of our clients Earth Island Institute and the Center for Biological Diversity in support of their challenge to the Three Creeks logging Project in the Inyo National Forest.

Our senior legal fellow, Haley Nicholson ’22, made her first live court appearance in federal district court in Maine to argue for more transparency in government decision-making. She presented oral argument in a case in which Earthrise represents several public interest environmental organizations opposing an electrical transmission line cutting across fragile and ecologically important habitat in western Maine.

Join GEI and leaders from across the energy industry at Oregon CUB’s Energy Policy Conference on Friday, October 6. Register today!

Students may volunteer to attend for free. To volunteer, email sharif@oregoncub.org

Professor Emerita Helen Kang of Golden Gate University Law School is the Lewis & Clark Law featured speaker at the 35th Distinguished Visitor Lecture.

Class of 2023 graduate Casey Bage will be recognized at the 35th Annual Environmental Distinguished Visitor Event and Lecture on September 20.

Professors Erica Lyman and Nick Fromhertz are part of an effort to protect Pangolins – the most heavily trafficked mammals in the world. The U.S. Interior Dept took action as a result of their successful Pelly Petition.

Pangolins are the most heavily trafficked mammals in the world. The Global Law Alliance for Animals and the Environment, together with collaborating organizations, successfully pursued a Pelly Petition to protect them.

The Northwest Opportunities Conference, hosted by the Green Energy Institute and others, includes panels on the benefits and challenges of transportation electrification for environmental justice communities, western electricity market development, and a panel on careers in energy law.

NEDC has provided law students with environmental law experience, networking opportunities, and the feeling of community since 1969.

New research from Associate Professor of Law Lisa Benjamin explores the positive environmental justice impacts of electric vehicles while urging updates to land-use and mining regulations to protect Native communities.

LC alum, Hannah Goldblatt: “L&C gave me a rigorous education in the fundamentals of law, offered a variety of experiential learning opportunities, and empowered me to pursue a public interest law career!”

Law student Glenda Valdez ’23 recently organized a panel for the 52nd spring conference of the ABA Section on Environment, Energy, and Resources (SEER).

As an LC Law student participating in the school’s Earthrise Law clinic, Caitlin Dols dug into the science surrounding the southern sea otter, as well as the case law of the Endangered Species Act. She played a leading role in researching and drafting the official comment on the delisting proposal for the otter on behalf of the Environment America Research & Policy Center.

In January, an expedition to the Seventh Continent was guided by Clinical Professor of Law Erica Lyman as part of the L&C Travel Program. This incredible journey was tailored for an intrepid group of Lewis & Clark alumni, family, and friends. The route navigated the famed Drake Passage, visiting unique locations across the South Shetland Islands and the Antarctica Peninsula.

Karli Uwaine (’24) was selected as one of two 2023 Lewis & Clark Diehl Fellows.

Trisha Sharma (’24) was selected as one of two 2023 Lewis & Clark Diehl Fellows.

Lewis & Clark Law School student, Colin Pohlman (3L) and Jackson Moffett (JD ’23), helped plan and execute the combined New Directions in Environmental Law Conference and Food Law Student Leadership Summit, which took place at Yale Law School and Yale School of the Environment this spring.

Prof. Craig Johnston gave a tutorial on RCRA on this Lawyer2Lawyer podcast.

Law student groups host timber exec and Native American forest management director to discuss forest management perspectives.

Lewis & Clark Law adjunct professors, Edward Sullivan (Willamette JD ’69) and Jeff Litwak (L&C JD ’97), have taught land use courses at Lewis & Clark Law School for a combined sixty years, and recently issued an online casebook on Oregon land use.

Kelsey’s article, titled “A Time Line of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and Wildfire Crisis Strategy”, was posted on April 3rd, 2023 to the American Bar Association website. The article discusses the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the Forest Service’s Wildfire Crisis Strategy and Implementation Plan, and more. 

The full article can be found here. 

The Haub Environmental Law Distinguished Junior Scholar Award is presented annually to an emerging junior environmental law professor who exhibits scholarly excellence and promise at an early stage in his/her career. 

The original article, cited in this story, was posted by Pace University and can be accessed and read here.

Caroline Lobdell, adjunct professor and director of WRLC, was recognized by the Environmental & Natural Resources Section of the Oregon State Bar with their annual award.

Lewis & Clark MSL alum and Bridge Michigan reporter, Kelly House, is the winner of the 2023 Environmental Journalist Award from the Michigan chapter of the Sierra Club.

Elijah (Eli) Savage JD ’24 was selected as one of two 2023 Lewis & Clark Wyss Scholars. He will focus on connections between land conservation and imperiled species with the Center for Biological Diversity in the summer of 2023.

Hank Shell (’24) was selected as one of two 2023 Lewis & Clark Wyss Scholars to focus on public land issues on the Colorado Plateau with Earthjustice’s Rocky Mountain office in summer of 2023.

As the nation’s oldest environmental law journal, the current Environmental Law student editorial leadership wants to use the law review’s position as a premier legal forum to foster diversity of authorship and shift the environmental discourse to issues faced by underrepresented populations. To that end, ELR is preparing articles that address the intersection of climate change, social, racial, public health, and environmental justice issues. 

Earthrise achieves a significant victory for the critically endangered Māui Dolphin.

Vanessa Gischkow Garbini (Animal Law LLM ’22, Brazil) reflects on her recent experience attending CITES CoP19 and why it gave her hope for addressing the loss of wild animals’ lives and stopping the extinction crisis.

Ayman chose Lewis & Clark for its top program in environmental law and its highly distinguished professors. She was also definitely drawn to the fact that the campus was located in a forest!

On November 17th, Green Energy Institute Staff Attorney, Carra Sahler moderated a panel via Zoom on how we may see the IRA used in ways we may not expect and what implementation actions will look like over the next year with Dan Esposito and Hadley Tallackson from Energy Innovation and Alex Piper from the RMI.

Author and Professor John Leshy discusses his new book, Our Common Ground: A History of America’s Public Lands on Ocotober 25th, 2022.

Professor Leshy’s talk highlights the main themes of this history and lessons it offers for dealing with contemporary challenges like climate change, biodiversity loss, and the dramatic increase in visitation.

The Green Energy Institute (GEI) and Earthjustice celebrate victory while representing climate, environmental justice, and community-led social justice organizations in proceeding by Oregon regulators reviewing NW Natural’s request to raise gas bills.

The Environmental, Natural Resources, and Energy Law Program hosted Patrick Parenteau as the 34th Distinguished Visitor.

For the event, Professor Parenteau gave a lecture on environmental advocacy titled “Now the Hard Part: Environmental Advocacy in the 21st Century,” which was recorded and is now available for viewing. 

Join author John Leshy on October 25th  in the Lower Student Lounge of the Legal Research Center as he discusses his new book, Our Common Ground: A History of America’s Public Lands, followed by a reception.

“I am grateful to be surrounded by brilliant students, amazing professors, and a flexible and solution-minded staff. This community has taken the hard out of adjusting to law school, not only because of the peer support but also because of the resources available.”…

Lewis & Clark Law School’s Global Law Alliance hosts Peruvian prosecutors, police, and judges working to protect wild animals

Professor Melissa Powers is recognized by peers as preeminent in the field of environmental law.

Haley Nicholson ’22 argued for increased environmental action as a certified law student.

Focus on environmental justice in underserved communities propelled selection among 300+ applicants.

Barak Kamelgard shares his journey in the online LLM program, why he chose to pursue the degree, and how this program has impacted his professional career.

Akriti Bhargava ’22 presented the coveted Leo Levenson Award for excellence in teaching to Professor Lisa Benjamin on behalf of the graduating class.

The Law School recently hosted an innovative workshop on wildlife law taught by Professor Tanya Wyatt of Northumbria University, which pushed participants to think critically about what we perceive wildlife to be and how we conceptualize it in the law. Co-hosted by Professor Wyatt, the Center for Animal Law Studies (CALS), and Lewis & Clark Law School’s Environment, Natural Resources, and Energy Law Program.

Ecuador’s Constitutional Court recently issued a landmark decision extending the rights of nature to wild animals. In reaching its decision, the Court cited an opinion piece by Professors Lyman and Fromherz of Lewis & Clark Law School’s Global Law Alliance for Animals and the Environment.

Ecuador’s Constitutional Court recently issued a landmark decision extending the rights of nature to wild animals. In reaching its decision, the Court cited an opinion piece by Professors Lyman and Fromherz of Lewis & Clark Law School’s Global Law Alliance for Animals and the Environment.

Franklin Lagat, Lewis & Clark Law online LLM graduate, said the program expanded his knowledge of environmental law and wildlife law.

Three law students ace the challenging inter-school advocacy competition this year. The environmental law moot court team of 3L students Haley Nicholson, Kassie Kometani and Matt Campa, coached by Professor Craig Johnston, were named national champions of the 2022 Jeffrey G. Miller National Environmental Law Moot Court Competition (NELMCC). Haley Nicholson was honored as the best oralist at the entire competition.

Casey Bage (’23) is selected as 2022 Wyss Scholar to focus on natural resources and public lands issues.

Tania Jarjur ’11 was named “Woman in Solar of the Year” by the Middle East Energy Industry Association (MESIA) at the World Future Energy Summit (WFES) in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE).

President Joe Biden has chosen Boulder’s KC Becker, the recent speaker of the Colorado House of Representatives, for a top job in the Environmental Protection Agency.

Professor Chris Wold’s report has global repercussions as it uncovers how large international fishing vessels confine workers onboard with no way to leave.

Professors Benjamin and Powers join others to discuss goals for climate action and how COP26 outcomes delivered on promises made.

A federal judge halted a 78-acre (31.5-hectare) commercial timber harvest in central Oregon at the request of Earthrise and on behalf of the Blue Mountains Biodiversity Project.

The annual Huffman Scholarship Award recognizes outstanding faculty scholarship.

The Master of Studies (MSL) degree in Environmental Law, for non-lawyers, is now offered online.

Michael Benjamin Smith ’21 presented oral argument in an Earthrise lawsuit involving aquatic species and mercury pollution in Idaho, and the Judge ruled in his favor.

Clinical Professor Erica Lyman was quoted as a legal expert in a National Geographic article regarding an oil and gas project that threatens endangered animals and the environment in Africa.

Professor Lisa Benjamin recently published a book about the interaction between climate action and corporate law.

Susan Jane Brown ’00 was honored by the OSB ENR section on February 11, 2021.

Earthrise Law Center filed an eighth supplemental complaint with the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon over the federal hydropower systems in the Columbia and Snake Rivers and the agencies’ failure to comply with the ESA and NEPA.

Professor Lisa Benjamin is participating in a series of webinars the ABA section on Civil Rights and Social Justice is doing during the month of February in honor of Black History Month.

Four Lewis & Clark Law alums are engaged in legal battles related to food safety - for humans, animals, and the environment - through their work at the Center for Food Safety (CFS), a nationwide nonprofit whose mission is to empower people, support farmers, and protect the earth from the harmful impacts of industrial agriculture. CFS has won several important cases recently, thanks to the hard work of these alums.

Combining its nationally recognized expertise in environmental law and animal law, Lewis & Clark Law School announced the creation of the Global Law Alliance for Animals and the Environment (the “Alliance”). The Alliance is a champion for wild animals and wild spaces across the globe, working to protect animals and the environment through the development, implementation, and enforcement of international law. Law students (JD and LLM) actively participate in the work through two clinics within the Alliance.

Sadie Normoyle (’20) will be presenting her paper, “Protecting Water Quality Through Tribal Treaty Fishing Rights: An Analysis of Idaho’s Fish Consumption Rate”, at the University of Arizona’s Next Generation of Environmental Law Symposium in April. The paper will also be published in the Arizona Journal of Environmental Law & Policy in the Summer 2020 issue.

Three Lewis & Clark Law School alums, including Leah Feldon (’04), Cyndy Mackey (’86), and Laura Kerr (’14), will provide expert analysis at an upcoming symposium on Superfund issues organized by the Environmental Law Education Center (ELEC). 

LC Law LLM alum, Kathleen S. Y. Ho, is slated to become the next Director of the Office of Environmental Quality Control (OEQC) in Hawaii. Ho has extensive experience in environmental law, having served as deputy attorney general in the Health Division since 1992.

Lewis & Clark Celebrates 50 years of Environmental Law, 1970 - 2020

Lewis and Clark Law School was one of the first law schools to create an environmental law program. Today, celebrating a 50-year milestone, it is one of the most robust programs in the nation and has consistently been ranked by U.S. News as the Number 1 or 2 environmental law program in the nation.

How does a Jewish kid from Philly become a tribal court judge in Alaska? Just ask Judge David Avraham Voluck. Born and raised in Philadelphia, Voluck has been practicing federal Indian and tribal law from his home base in Sitka, Alaska, since 1996, save for a two-year sabbatical he took to attend the Rabbinical College of America.

Lewis & Clark Law School’s Environmental, Natural Resources, and Energy Law program and the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission hosted a day-long symposium on October 18, 2019, celebrating the 50th anniversary of Judge Robert Belloni’s historic opinion in U.S. v. Oregon.

The event coincided with a celebration of 50 years of the environmental law program

Lewis & Clark Law School’s 2019 environmental law moot court team of Ben Scissors (2L), Sangye Ince-Johanssen (3L), and Rachel Blackburn (3L), advanced to the quarterfinals of the national environmental law moot court competition. Ben won recognition as the “best overall oralist” of the entire competition.

Lewis & Clark Law School is pleased to announce that Hannah Clements ’20 is the second Wyss Scholar to be selected from the law school. The Wyss Foundation is a private, charitable organization dedicated to western public lands issues, and its Scholars Program supports graduate-level education for the next generation of leaders in western land conservation.

Lewis & Clark now offers its LLM degree in Environmental, Natural Resources, and Energy Law through a distance-learning online option. The online LLM in Environmental, Natural Resources, and Energy Law builds on the law school’s internationally recognized post-JD environmental law Master’s program, and is specifically designed for attorneys who want to more effectively practice in today’s global environmental legal issues.  Applications for the Spring 2020 Cohort are now being accepted.

Professor Benjamin is the newest member of the acclaimed Environmental, Natural Resources, and Energy Law Program and is a globally recognized expert and scholar in energy, climate change, and corporate law—particularly as they intersect.

Lewis & Clark Law school graduates are engaged in leadership roles in Environmental Protection Agency offices across the country, from Washington D.C. to Seattle.  Their roles range from overseeing hundreds of employees, enforcing federal pollution laws and addressing hazardous waste, to working on environmental justice issues. We recently heard from more than a dozen alums, who detailed their work and efforts (through many administrations) to fight for clean air, land, and water.

Jonathan Lovvorn has authored several articles at the intersection of animal law and human rights/social movements, served as senior vice president and chief counsel for the Humane Society of the United States, and founded the largest animal protection litigation department in the nation.  

Professor William Funk of Lewis & Clark Law School offers his take on current fight to appeal the Oregon Land Use Board decision to strike down the 2016 City of Portland ordinance to ban new fossil fuel infrastructure within Portland’s limits.

Prof. Michael Blumm has been involved in an important case involving the public trust doctrine in Oregon regarding access to Oswego Lake (located in the community of Lake Oswego, down the road from the law school). The plaintiffs – assisted by Blumm - challenged a city ordinance that prohibits the public from entering the lake from three adjacent city parks, as well as a city policy limiting use of a city-owned swim park to city residents.

Lewis & Clark Law School alum Ellen Gilmer (MSL’14) of E&E news speaks on The Cutting Edge on the failure of the Senate to disapprove a methane rule enacted by the Obama Administration through a Congressional Review Act resolution. Gilmer discusses possible next steps going forward. Watch the video HERE.

Samantha Murray describes herself as having an “undeniable, inextricable, lifelong connection to water” that drew her to marine science. That connection means she’ll be in her element with an office footsteps away from the Pacific Ocean on the campus of Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego.

Mark Tuai gains real world experience being around a team of extraordinary attorneys dedicated to improving the environment.

A recent forum hosted by the law school represented the joint efforts of three programs—Business Law, Environmental Law, and Animal Law—to highlight a variety of important areas included under the umbrella of “food law.” 

Eat, Pray, Law: A Food Forum explored a broad spectrum of issues ranging from labeling and transparency to sustainability, urban agriculture, and food justice. The forum’s goal was to develop interest in and raise awareness of the food industry’s legal issues, challenges, business operations, regulations, and policy. Over 100 people attended the event.

The Green Energy Institute at Lewis & Clark Law School issued a report titled, “A Safe Bet: How Least-Risk Resource Planning Can Pave the Way for Renewable Energy.” The report discusses how utility resource planning rules that focus on procuring the lowest-cost resource mix may inadvertently encourage risky investments in fossil fuel-fired electricity resources, and recommends that states reduce ratepayer exposure to risk by adopting least-risk.

resource planning policies.

We’re starting a new series of stories called “GreenLights”, where we will shine a spotlight on some of our amazing students in the environmental and natural resources law program. In our first GreenLight, Victor Reuther (’15) shares some of his background and law school experiences with us. In addition to his role as Editor of Environmental Law, Victor spent a fabulous summer on a Lewis & Clark externship in Delhi, India. 

Lewis & Clark Law School is pleased to announce the availability of an exciting on-line course for attorneys, policymakers, and anyone else interested in energy law issues.

From June 9-12, Lewis & Clark Law School Professor Melissa Powers will offer Electricity Essentials: Renewables, Utilities & Transmission. This course will provide a comprehensive overview of the U.S. electricity supply and will address the following key components, important to anyone seeking a better understanding of the electricity system in the United States: