Hello,
I am a freshmen at a medium sized state school, where I am a part of the honors college and in a public policy cohort program. My major is Environmental Studies, and I have increasingly become more interested in pursuing a career in environmental law as the year has gone on.
Besides the obvious things, such as joining my school’s Pre-Law Society, I am wondering if there are any other steps I should take to get a leg up in pursuing law school at this stage in my educational career. Would it be particularly advantageous to try out for my school’s mock trial team, or would it be more important to pursue leadership positions in the groups I am already a part of? What else could I do to increase my chances of being a good candidate for law schools in the future - just looking for any and all advice.
Thank you!
All that matters is LSAT and GPA. Get involved and pursue your interests, but test scores and GPA is what the admissions committee’s at law schools (including top law schools) will care about when making a decision.
I would get internships in the summer with employers in environmental areas, both legal and non-legal. Environmental law is probably like international law: the reality of law practice is probably much less glamorous and much less “environmental” than you think: lots of time behind a computer in an office.
I have never met an “environmental” lawyer ever, in nearly 20 years of practicing law in firms, nonprofits and companies, so I would assume that environmental lawyers work for public interest organizations or the government and that opportunities are limited.
Be sure to work in some non-legal internships so that you see the real deal and the purpose behind what environmental lawyers do.
“Besides the obvious things, such as joining my school’s Pre-Law Society,” – Pursue things that interest you and don’t join the pre-law society unless it is something you are interested in doing. There is no pre-law track that you need to follow. I know attorneys who have graduated with degrees in journalism, marketing, pre-med students who had a change of heart and even puppetering. I kid you not. She’s been very successful as a corporate attorney.
I know lots of environmental lawyers. Many of them are in private practice and do land use work or fighting over EIRs. A lot are involved in financing development (and cleaning up whatever was on the land before). There are also plaintiff-side environmental firms doing toxic torts. I would stress internships in firms or with agencies doing the kind of law you think you’d want to do. The reality of environmental law is rarely the kind of crusade most people envision.
WildestDream, understood. I’m going to work to keep my 4.0 for as long as possible, and I have started occasionally playing LSAT logic games.
HappyAlumnus, that makes sense. During my winter break I volunteered for 4 weeks with an environmental nonprofit, but I am currently applying to more policy research-oriented opportunities for this summer. In future summers I will definitely try to intern with a more legally focused organization. There do seem to be a number of organizations completely dedicated to environmental law, such as the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), Environmental Law Institute (ELI), to name some of the most prominent ones. Perhaps my view of exactly what they do is skewed, but I assumed many of those working in those organizations would consider themselves to be "environmental lawyers."I actually became interested one environmental law after looking through the “experts” database on the NRDC’s website and discovered that perhaps half of their employees were said to have a law degree. As I mentioned earlier, I am also interested in environmental policy, so I would be interested to hear if I might be more well suited for a policy career than a legal one based on my environmental focus.
PaveYourPath, haha, I understand. Like I said, I am an Environmental Studies major, and just because I plan to pursue a career in law doesn’t mean I am going to suddenly switch to a PoliSci major or anything. I really just hope to take my future knowledge of the environment and use it in a legal context to further conservation. I think I will join the Pre-Law society, mostly because they apparently host LSAT prep sessions, invite legal speakers, etc. that could be beneficial if I do choose to pursue a legal career, but thank you for the input.
Demosthenes49, could you explain more about the kind of work the environmental lawyers you know do? I am most interested in conservation, so what I hope to do in a future career would be about fighting for stricter land-use laws, protecting and expanding regulations like that established by the Endangered Species Act, etc. Are those unrealistic expectations for a career one environmental law?
Thanks again everyone!
@cbwalkup: A good way to think about whether career aspirations are realistic is to ask who will pay you for it. Law is a service profession, so you have to go where the clients are. Are there clients that will pay you to become an environmental lobbyist (which is what you’ve described–not environmental law)? How do those clients work? Who are they paying now? Go investigate the people working today doing what you want to do. Then go see about interning with them.
@Demosthenes49 That makes a lot of sense. Is law entirely a service profession that deals solely with clients though? Harvard Law School’s “A Trail Guide to Careers in Environmental Law” says environmental lawyers, among other tasks, “draft legislation and lobby elected officials; advise policymakers in all levels of government; participate in the rulemaking process and design new regulatory regimes… and engage in public policy discussions at think tanks and academic institutions.” That does not sound like working with clients, rather working within the government or through public interest organizations by directly impacting and changing environmental policy/law. Is the reality on the ground much more focused on the courts and client services? Not trying to be combative, but I really want to know what kind of career I might be getting into. Thanks again!
@cbwalkup: Private practice lawyers are sometimes hired to help with those things. Agency lawyers definitely spend time helping write regulation and advising. There are also non-profits that do environmental work (e.g., EarthJustice, the NRDC). Each of those involves working for a client, it’s just that your client is sometimes your organization. Those non-profits that do impact litigation are paid in other ways, but the ethical duty is to the client there too.
I think if environmental law interests you you should spend some time investigating more precisely what kind of jobs are available. Then you should go talk to those people to see how they got where they did.