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When you think of environmental law, do you picture saving forests and streams through enforcement of logging and clean water regulations? Or holding large corporations liable for toxic waste cleanup? How about working with a coalition of other professionals to devise ways to prevent lead paint poisoning in children?

The practice of environmental law, say those who do it, is all these things and much more.

“Environmental law is about as eclectic a practice as you can get,” says Sheila Hollis, an environmental lawyer with Duane, Morris & Heckscher in Washington, D.C., and chair of the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Environmental Law.

“Environmental law was born in this country long before it was named,” Hollis says. “There were statutes to protect the ecology, designate national parks, regulate land use, protect the forests, and other things. Beginning in the 1960s and ’70s, Congress began to pass things like the National Environmental Policy Act. Today there are statutes protecting air, ground water, endangered species—a huge number of statutes to regulate and control development, force cleanups, protect flora and fauna, etc.”

Hollis’ committee is involved in drafting legislation on environmental policy and works closely with public and private environmental groups to develop policies on a range of environmental issues.

“There is a lot of work to do in shaping environmental laws, both domestically and internationally,” Hollis says. “There are ties to international trade concerns, such as, should the U.S. alter its trade policies with certain countries that don’t provide as much environmental protection as we do?”

Other up-and-coming areas in environmental law include urban sprawl and its effect on the environment, and the increased interest among large manufacturers in “emissions trading.” Companies are given a certain number of pollution “credits” by the federal government, allowing each to emit certain amounts of various toxic substances. Some companies need more credits for a particular substance and may trade credits for one substance with a company that needs credits for emission of another substance.

Hollis says students interested in environmental law should be willing to be both litigators and transactional lawyers, because the two areas are so closely intertwined in this field. She cites administrative law as a must-have course, and says corporate law will also benefit students interested in this area.

Lynn Slade, an environmental lawyer in Albuquerque, N.M., agrees that the trend in his field is toward globalization of environmental policies. Slade is the membership chair for the ABA Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources.

“The environment and the effective and efficient use of energy resources are interrelated in the most basic ways,” Slade says. “Global climate changes, for example, are the direct result of the way we use resources. As lawyers, we have the opportunity to provide leadership and facilitate dialogues to effect positive change.”

Slade’s section, with some 11,000 members, has more than 40 committees on topics ranging across water quality, air quality, hazardous waste, energy restructuring, international energy and resources, marine resources, and Native American energy resources.

Another section member is Catherine Garypie, senior enforcement counsel for the Environmental Protection Agency’s Boston office. Garypie began her EPA career in 1990 as a student intern in the agency’s Chicago office. By proving her mettle during the internship, she received a full-time job offer upon graduating from law school in 1991.

Garypie says her position brought immediate high-level autonomy in handling and resolving cases on behalf of the agency. She recalls one negotiation session early in her career where she was the EPA’s sole negotiator in settlement talks about toxic waste at a site owned by a major corporation. The corporation’s counsel was one of the top environmental lawyers at a major Chicago law firm.

“I thought, wow, here I am and it’s just me vs. this partner from one of the biggest firms in the country, and we’re resolving this case!” Garypie recalls.

Garypie says the satisfaction she receives from working on such cases is what makes her job so interesting. Other issues she predicts will continue to involve the EPA in the next few years include agriculture management and feedlot water supply contamination, pesticides and chemical regulation, solid waste, the public’s right to know about EPA investigations and findings, and the impact of science and technology on society’s impressions of safety in exposure to various substances.

Garypie suggests that students interested in working for the EPA inquire about internships by contacting not only the Washington headquarters, but also the agency’s local or regional office, as each EPA region hires independently.

Another ABA entity involved in environmental law issues is the Tort and Insurance Practice Section, which has a committee dedicated to toxic torts and environmental litigation. Chair Tim Bouch, an environmental lawyer in Charleston, S.C., says that while litigation involving Federal Superfund cleanup may be on the wane, a variety of other issues are likely to become major sources of environmental litigation in the next several years.

Bouch, who also chairs the Litigation Section’s Environmental Litigation Committee, says much of the work on Superfund will transfer to the regulatory arena over the next few years, opening opportunities for lawyers to advise clients, especially large corporations, on avoiding liability.

Bouch also believes that recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions will limit the use of class action litigation for many environmental liability issues, such as toxic torts. But, he says, individual claims brought by people claiming a variety of injuries from various environmental sources will continue to be a hot practice area in the coming years.

Of increasing concern, Bouch says, are matters such as “sick building syndrome,” which has been blamed for causing illness among office workers due to faulty ventilation systems and construction materials. Litigation arising from such phenomena, he notes, involves a variety of sophisticated issues of causation and expert opinion. Bouch also cites as growing areas for litigation chemical exposure cases and other fallout from the increase in energy-efficiency standards of the 1970s.

“With the energy crisis, the government mandated that buildings be made more airtight to conserve energy,” Bouch says. “The problem we find is that toxic substances such as formaldehyde given off by wood and carpet then condense in the buildings rather than dissipate, and some people claim to be made ill by that. The question for litigation is, at what level do these substances become harmful to the average person?”

At the ABA, a clean environment is considered a right of sorts. Frances Dubrowksi and Leslie Turner, both environmental lawyers in Washington, D.C., are the chairs of the Environmental Justice Committee of the ABA’s Individual Rights and Responsibilities Section. The committee was formed in response to the ABA’s Environmental Justice Resolution, which calls on members of the profession to take action to remedy environmental injustice.

The committee’s first undertaking, in conjunction with the D.C. Bar Association, was to form a coalition of professionals from fields including medicine, social work, public service, and law. The group polled residents in some of Washington’s poorest neighborhoods and asked what their biggest environmental concerns were. The survey found overwhelming support among residents for greater environmental regulation. Residents wanted safer drinking water, cleanup of local air and water pollution, and a resolution of the problem of lead paint contamination in their buildings.

The coalition’s study prompted actions such as local and federal regulations requiring cleaner air and water, and a speaker’s bureau of doctors, lawyers, social workers, and others who attend community meetings to teach residents about prevention of lead paint poisoning. Dubrowski says the IRR Environmental Justice Committee will now use the experience it gained in Washington to promote similar efforts in communities across the country.

“When legal professionals join with other professionals, they can have a tremendous impact,” Dubrowski says. “Many lawyers and other professionals would like to be involved in these sorts of activities, but they just don’t know where the opportunities are. The nice thing about this multidisciplinary approach is that there are a variety of expertises brought to the table, and the impact is more long lasting.”

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Margaret Graham Tebo, a former Student Lawyer student editor, is a writer, lawyer, teacher, and literary agent in suburban Chicago.

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