Justice for Animals and the Environment on a Global Scale

Stories of wildlife advocacy rarely spotlight the legal work behind the scenes—yet international law underpins many of these wins, and L&C’s Global Law Alliance is driving some of the most impactful ongoing efforts to protect the natural world.

For decades, wildlife activists and animal advocates fought against commercial whaling, which persisted despite a global moratorium on the practice. In the 2000s, students in Lewis & Clark Law School’s International Animal and Environmental Law Clinic (IAELC) helped prepare a compliance case against Japan, whose imports of whale products had been, to that point, subject to certificates issued in violation of the international treaty regulating wildlife trade. Through close collaboration with anti-whaling organizers and campaigners, the clinic produced legal arguments that supported finding Japan noncompliant—in effect, forcing an end to the country’s Southern Ocean whaling in Antarctica.

IAELC is one of two student clinics under the law school’s Global Law Alliance for Animals and the Environment. The other is the International Wildlife Clinic, designed for students enrolled in the popular Animal Law LLM program. The Global Law Alliance, which can be traced back to the late 1990s, is a first-of-its-kind collaboration between L&C’s Center for Animal Law Studies and the Environmental, Natural Resources, and Energy Law Program. Students pursuing a JD or LLM gain real-world experience in legal areas where the school is an established leader, under the supervision of Director and Professor of Law Erica Lyman.

“Law students will often come to Lewis & Clark because they want to tackle these huge issues from a public interest perspective––issues like climate change, habitat protection, or wildlife conservation,” says Lyman, who is a recognized leader in international environmental and wildlife law. “We bring clients and partners to the clinic who are dedicated to making the world a better place and who can help students experience real-world public interest lawyering.”

Under the Global Law Alliance, students are in what Lyman refers to as “first chair position” (i.e., the lead attorney)––problem-solving legal issues, drafting memos and reports, and engaging directly with clients. The purpose of the clinics is to allow students to take ownership of projects that have tangible outcomes while also being able to turn to the resources of the law school for structure, guidance, and mentorship.

Abigail Dodd JD ’26 came to Lewis & Clark Law School with an established interest in ecological harms that transcend borders as well as a special passion for sustainable fishing and the protection of wild salmon. “I wanted to understand how those issues fit into the broader global framework for marine biodiversity,” says Dodd. Through the Global Law Alliance, she had the opportunity to brief the White House Council on Environmental Quality ahead of the Global Plastics Treaty negotiations, providing essential information on the regulation of polymers in the Toxic Substances Control Act. She also worked with an environmental organization to develop novel legal theories to address illegal aquaculture operations abroad. The clinic strengthened her transnational instincts and reaffirmed her plans to pursue water law after graduation.

Friends of the Earth U.S. (FoE) partnered with the Global Law Alliance to further their mission of defending oceans, forests, and wildlife against preventable harms. In 2024, the Alliance helped FoE draft a letter to the Biden Administration seeking climate action against the U.S. Export Import Bank, using a little-known law called the Chafee Amendment. “The Global Law Alliance has been with us every step of the way, no matter what we throw at them,” says Hallie Templeton, FoE’s legal director. “We have received impeccably sharp and creative legal analysis from the student clinicians.”

For students, working with the Global Law Alliance can be a springboard to a successful career in environmental law. Anna Tadio JD ’20 works as an attorney at the Conservation Law Foundation, where she is actively engaged in litigation against Shell Oil to prevent an oil spill that would affect coastal Connecticut and Rhode Island. “I wanted to join the GLA because I care deeply about protecting the environment—specifically wildlife,” says Tadio. “As a student, I assisted in the creation of a prosecutor’s manual for wildlife crimes in Angola, which Professor Lyman then later took to Angola to train local prosecutors and law enforcement. It was a huge win to see a document I helped create be used to directly combat wildlife trafficking.”

Grant Wilson JD ’12, who serves as executive director of the Earth Law Center, calls the Global Law Alliance a “turning point” in his legal career. “It showed me how powerful international law can be as a tool to address global environmental threats. It also showed me the power of rights-based movements—first in the human rights context, including island nations whose very existence is threatened by climate change, and now expanded to include nature’s own rights,” says Wilson. “These experiences convinced me to stay involved in international environmental law for the long term.”

Global Law Alliance for Animals and the Environment