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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.