Founded in 1996, Earthrise Law Center is the environmental legal clinic at Lewis & Clark Law School. Earthrise Law Center is a team of impassioned attorneys and staff working to achieve targeted environmental improvement while teaching the next generation of advocates to do the same.
What We Do
Earthrise provides low or no-cost legal services for nonprofit conservation organizations in virtually the entire spectrum of environmental and natural resources law, from protecting endangered species and ecosystems to preventing and reducing air and water pollution. Our clients range from small grassroots nonprofits to large national organizations. These groups rely on our services as a key legal tool to help secure important environmental protections, both due to the quality of our legal representation and because there are few nonprofit, pro bono law firms nationwide.
How We Do It
Earthrise helps foster future environmental attorneys by providing hands-on opportunities for environmental advocacy. Students play a vital role at Earthrise by participating in all phases of the litigation process, including drafting motions and pleadings, formulating arguments, and strategy, and contributing to discussions with clients and opposing parties. Through this work, students gain real-world experience in public interest environmental law. Because of our achievements, Earthrise has been named one of the “winningest” legal clinics in the nation by National Jurist.
Our Name
The triangle in our name is the ancient alchemical symbol for Earth. The first image ever recorded of Earth from space is called “Earthrise.” Shot in 1968 from Apollo 8, the photograph in our banner above of the planet rising from behind the lunar horizon shaped the course of the environmental movement by revealing Earth as the fragile and finite planet that it is, a home in need of care and worthy of protecting. In Carl Sagan’s words, “the Earth is where we take our stand.” At Earthrise, we make those ideals a reality through our teaching and advocacy.
Earthrise Law Center is located in Wood Hall on the Law Campus. MSC: 51
