Clinics and Practical Skills

Clinics

Earthrise Law Center at Lewis & Clark Law School: 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. 

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.

The Global Law Alliance at Lewis & Clark Law School offers two clinics: the International Animal and Environmental Law Clinic for JD students and the International Wildlife Law Clinic for LLM students. Students participate in the work, becoming effective advocates through training and practical experience.

Practical Skills

Legal Practica & Externships: Legal practica are an excellent way to gain valuable real-world legal experience while attending law school.  Students in a practicum earn academic credit in exchange for work at a local placement and attendance in a weekly class.  The practica all involve pre-arranged, carefully selected placements that optimize student learning and experience.  Students are supervised by the attorneys at the placement and all of the placements are overseen by adjunct professors who coordinate the placements and teach the weekly classes and who are themselves deeply immersed in environmental practice in Portland.

The environmental law program offers the following legal practica:

Environmental & Natural Resources Law Practicum:  Students can choose from an array of prearranged placements in the environmental and natural resources law fields, including placements with federal and state environmental agencies, private firms, and non-governmental organizations all within the Portland metro area.

Western Resources Legal Center:  Through this practicum, students work for the Western Resources Legal Center, a Portland based nonprofit organization that represents private individuals and businesses in a variety of natural resources matters.

Environmental Externships: Students can earn academic credit by working for a law firm, government agency, legislative body, or public interest organization. Placement opportunities exist across the country and throughout the world. Through the practical experience gained and contacts developed during the externship, many externs receive valuable leads for postgraduate employment.

Green Energy Institute: The Green Energy Institute is the latest addition to Lewis & Clark’s Environmental, Natural Resources, and Energy Law Program. The Green Energy Institute is undertaking a suite of policy projects. GEI’s work is designed to hasten the transition to a 100% renewable power grid by improving existing policies and incentives in order to entice investment from diverse energy-market stakeholders. 

Environmental Law Review: Environmental Law publishes four issues each year on a quarterly calendar. Topics of discussion run the gamut from in-depth analyses of recent cases to more abstract discussions of the latest pollution prevention theories. We strive to provide the practitioner with practical, helpful articles, while continuing to lead the way in environmental thinking.

Environmental Law Moot Court Program: Lewis & Clark has a nationally recognized environmental moot court program.