The Environmental Law Clinic provides an opportunity each quarter for students to represent national, regional, and grassroots non-profit organizations on a variety of environmental issues.  The clinic’s primary goal is to help students develop essential lawyering skills through hands-on experience in real matters.

Under the supervision of clinic co-directors Deborah Sivas, JD ’87 and Matthew Sanders, JD ’02, and clinical supervising attorney Amanda Zerbe, BA/BS ’15, MS ’21, JD ’21, clinic students work on a mix of litigation and policy matters at the interface of law, science, and policy. Our matters take our students before administrative agencies and to all levels of state and federal court, including practice in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court.

As part of their casework in the clinic, students help screen new matters and potential clients; formulate strategies; research and develop factual and legal issues; and prosecute administrative and litigation proceedings. Students may meet with clients, opposing counsel or agency officials; review administrative records and develop expert testimony; draft comment letters, petitions, pleadings and briefs; and present argument at administrative and judicial hearings. Our clinic has a heavy emphasis on learning how to write persuasively, present oral arguments, and exercise professional judgment.

The clinic runs year-round, with full-time students in the fall and winter quarters and advanced students in the fall, winter, and spring quarters. Students can find more details on the full-time and advanced clinics on Stanford Law School’s Course Catalog.

Check out the Clinic’s big victories and read more about our Environmental Program in our most recent newsletters.