Founders' Legacy Fellowship

Started in 2013, Earthrise’s fellowship program includes two full-time fellows. Over their two years with Earthrise, legal fellows are treated as associates—developing and litigating their own cases while simultaneously working with senior attorneys to gain valuable experience at the beginning of their careers. This fellowship provides recent law school graduates with an opportunity to get a jumpstart on their careers as environmental advocates, as well as gives Earthrise additional capacity to serve its clients and protect the environment. The clinic hires a new fellow each spring for a two-year position that begins the following autumn.

For more information about Earthrise’s fellowship program, please contact Earthrise Director, Dan Rohlf (rohlf@lclark.edu) or current Earthrise legal fellow, Zach Nacev (znacev@lclark.edu).

Current Founders’ Legacy Fellows

Megan Sweeney (2025-2027)

Megan Sweeney graduated from Lewis & Clark Law School in 2025 with Certificates in Animal Law and Environmental and Natural Resources Law. Megan is originally from Springfield, Missouri, and after graduating from the University of Missouri, she took a gap year to work as a legal runner at a civil transactions law firm. During law school, Megan was part of Animal Law Review, served on the board of Animal Legal Defense Fund, and externed with Columbia Riverkeeper. As a legal fellow for Earthrise, Megan is most excited to continue expanding her knowledge of environmental law while mentoring students through their clinical experience.

Zach Nacev Nicholson (2024-2026)

Past Founders’ Legacy Fellows

Lydia Dexter (2023-2025)

Lydia was part of Earthrise’s Tomorrow’s Advocates summer clerkship program in 2022. Her first project was to help an Earthrise client challenge unprecedented logging in a national park. She worked on a wide variety of environmental issues through her participation in Earthrise’s clinical class during her 3L year, including representing clients in Arkansas fighting a logging project near the Buffalo National River in Arkansas — one of the last undammed rivers in the contiguous United States. She continued her work on this case as a Fellow, including providing oral argument in support of our clients’ motion for summary judgment before the federal district court in Fayetteville, Arkansas. She also worked on Earthrise cases aimed at improving water quality in the Northwest. Lydia joined the Cultural Heritage Partners PLLC, which works with many tribal clients.

 

Haley Nicholson (2022-2023) 

Haley graduated summa cum laude from Lewis & Clark Law School in 2022 with certificates in public interest law and natural resources law. During law school, Haley participated in the Earthrise legal clinic where she helped represent public interest environmental organizations as a certified law student. Haley also participated in Lewis & Clark’s national environmental moot court team, where she helped lead her team to win the 2022 National Environmental Moot Court Competition and was awarded the title of Best Oralist in the entire competition. During her time as a fellow at Earthrise, Haley primarily focused on litigation against administrative agencies for inadequate environmental protection. Her practice involved actions under the Clean Water Act, National Environmental Policy Act, Federal Land Policy and Management Act, and the Freedom of Information Act. In her Adjunct Professor position, Haley helped teach Lewis & Clark Law’s Environmental Advocacy courses, which coach the school’s acclaimed national environmental moot court team. Haley is now a Staff Attorney with the Environmental Enforcement Project at Public Justice. 

 

Alex Houston (2021-2023)

Alex graduated summa cum laude from Lewis & Clark Law School in 2021 with a certificate in Environmental and Natural Resources Law. During law school, Alex gained experience working on a wide variety of environmental issues as a Law Clerk for both Earthrise and the Northwest Environmental Defense Center, as well as competing in the National Environmental Law Moot Court competition and serving as an Associate Editor on Environmental Law. Alex is now a Staff Attorney at the Green Energy Institute. 

 

Bridgett Chevallier (2020-2022)

Before Bridgett attended Lewis & Clark Law School, she worked in project and production management for media companies in Hollywood for several years. Bridgett enrolled at Lewis & Clark in 2017, and started getting involved with Earthrise through participating as a summer clerk in 2019 and then by taking the Earthrise clinic and ethics classes in the fall of 2019. Bridgett was selected to be a Founders’ Legacy Fellow from 2020 to 2022. Bridgett now works at Willamette Law Group in Oregon City, OR.

 

 

 

Danielle (Dani) Replogle (2019-2021)

Dani served as a Founders’ Legacy Fellow from 2019 to 2021. Dani enrolled at Lewis & Clark Law School in 2016 and focused on Environmental and Natural Resource Law. Earthrise’s mission and values were a major contributing factor for Dani in choosing to enroll at Lewis &Clark. During her time at Lewis & Clark, Dani had opportunities to work with environmental organizations and found a sense of purpose and belonging in protecting wild spaces where people can interact with nature and witness its majesty. Dani started getting involved with Earthrise in 2018 when she participated in the Earthrise clinic and ethics class. During this time, she gained insight on the minutia of litigation that she has applied that insight to environmental litigation later on in her practice. After leaving Earthrise, Dani worked as a Staff Attorney with the Public Health Law Center in Minneapolis, MN. She is currently a Staff Attorney at Food & Water Watch. 

 

Morgan Staric (2018-2020)

My time at Earthrise as a clinic student was the highlight of my law school experience and when I was offered the chance to continue working with Earthrise as the Founders’ Legacy Fellow I jumped at the opportunity.

The Founders’ Legacy Fellowship provides me and other fellows with substantive legal work right out of the gate, which is a rare opportunity for new attorneys.  The Fellowship also allows me to continue learning, as I work with some of the best environmental legal advocates. The other attorneys at Earthrise are great teachers and mentors who specialize in a variety of environmental laws.

Coming from the Midwest, I chose Lewis & Clark Law School for its expertise in environmental law and for all of the practical experiences that students are provided. I know that working with Earthrise as a clinic student prepared me for my legal future more than any other experience in law school.

I hope to return to the Midwest to continue my career in public interest environmental law, and I know that during my time as a fellow I will gain the skills and experience necessary to work towards that goal.

Morgan is now an Assistant Attorney General for the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, working in environmental enforcement. 

 

Kathryn Roberts (2017-2019)

I first became involved with Earthrise during my third year of law school as a clinical student. Earthrise was one of my best experiences in law school, because it combines the dedication to student learning common in my academic classes with the real world work of a large environmental law firm. I was instantly impressed with the Earthrise staff who are not only dedicated clinical professors, but also some of the most experienced environmental litigators across virtually every subject area of natural resources protection and pollution prevention. I was also thrilled to be part of the legal victories Earthrise achieves regularly, being able to see the effort I put in make a meaningful, on-the-ground difference.

I jumped at the chance to continue on with Earthrise as a Fellow following my graduation. The fellowship program at Earthrise is a fantastic opportunity to develop litigation skills that are invaluable to a new attorney while also learning the unique specialty of public interest environmental law. I was able to immediately start working on cases and building up a docket of my own, while under the expert mentorship and tutelage I gained so much from in law school. I know my time at Earthrise, as both a student and a Fellow, has prepared me for a career in public interest environmental litigation.

Kathryn is now Senior Deputy District Counsel at California’s South Coast Air Quality Management District.

 

Doug DeRoy (2016-2018)

As someone looking to forge a career in public interest environmental law, I can’t think of a better first job out of law school than the Earthrise Founders’ Legacy Fellowship.

The opportunity to bolster my legal education with practical environmental law experience in Earthrise’s environmental law clinic is what drew me to Lewis & Clark Law School. My experience working with Earthrise attorneys during law school, both as a clinical student and summer law clerk, served as the keystone of my legal education.

I intend to use my law degree to advocate for wild salmonids and the habitats that support them, and the Founders’ Legacy Fellowship will provide invaluable initial experience toward that goal.

The attorneys at Earthrise are not only expert litigators; they are also excellent teachers and mentors who are genuinely committed to training the next generation of public interest environmental advocates. Earthrise gives its fellows a level of responsibility rarely given to fellows and first-year associates at other firms, which I’m confident will leave me well prepared for the road ahead.

 

Ryan Shannon (2015-2017)

I was thrilled when I was offered the Founders’ Legacy Fellowship position. At the time, I had been working with Earthrise for two years as a clinical student and I truly appreciated the opportunity to continue to work with Earthrise.

First and foremost, Earthrise was a fantastic learning opportunity for me both as a student and as a fellow. Every attorney at Earthrise is knowledgeable, experienced, and a joy to work with. Additionally, they’re great teachers.

Entering into a fellowship program like this after graduating law school was invaluable as it provided a great opportunity to gain critical initial experience. Right away I was given significant and substantive responsibilities and encouraged to develop my own docket. I don’t know of many firms that offer that kind of opportunity to new associates.

Finally, the time I spent practicing at Earthrise prepared me well to go out and continue to work in public interest environmental law. It was also instrumental in me landing my current position as a staff attorney in the Endangered Species Program at the Center for Biological Diversity. Every day at work I continue to utilize and develop the litigation skills I learned at Earthrise.

Ryan is now a Senior Attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity.

Support the Founders’ Legacy Fellowship Fund

To commemorate our 20th anniversary, we announced the start of our Founders’ Legacy Fellowship Fund. This fund will ensure that recent law school graduates will have the opportunity to get a jumpstart on their careers as environmental advocates. Please support us in this endeavor to pay it forward by making a donation to this fund.