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Environmental Law
Golden Gate University School of Law has an exciting and highly respected environmental law program, offering a range of academic experiences and multiple clinical and practice opportunities. View the spring 2008 Environmental Law News GGU Law Takes 2nd Place at Statewide Environmental Negotiations Competition
GGU Law took second place at the 2008 State Bar of California Environmental Negotiations Competition on April 4 in Los Angeles. Two teams represented the School of Law at the prestigious annual competition, which is sponsored by the State Bar's Environmental Law Section. One of the GGU teams was one of four to make it to the final round in the 20-team competition. School of Law alumna Robin Salsburg (JD 02) coached the students. LLM in Environmental Law City Parks Project Publishes New Report on Access to East Bay Parks
Access to Parkland: Environmental Justice at East Bay Parks, is the first comprehensive, published analysis of access by low-income minority residents to the parkland holdings of the East Bay Regional Park District in the San Francisco Bay Area East Bay region. View the report.pdf. Professor Cliff Rechtschaffen Named Special Assistant to CA Attorney General on Climate Change
School of Law Professor Cliff Rechtschaffen, a noted author and scholar on environmental law and policy, has been appointed special assistant to California Attorney General Jerry Brown on global warming issues. Rechtschaffen, on leave from the School of Law, is working directly with the attorney general on issues relating to implementation and enforcement of California's statutes and regulations aimed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Expert on Biodiversity Joins Law School as Visiting Professor
Brent Plater, former Bay Area director at the Center for Biological Diversity, joined the Golden Gate University School of Law as a Litigation Staff Attorney with the law school's Environmental Law and Justice Clinic in 2006. He has extensive litigation experience on cases relating to the Endangered Species Act and other critical cases relating to wildlife and habitat protection. Read the press release. Listen to a recording by his essay on wilderness preservation broadcast on KQED-FM Listen to Broadcast. Environmental Law Courses
Students can take a rich and varied group of environmental law courses, including Environmental Law and Policy, Toxics Law and Policy, Land Use, Water Law, Public Natural Resources, International Environmental Law, International Trade and environment, Environmental Practice, California Environmental Law, Environmental Justice, and other courses and advanced seminars. Specialization Certificate
Students may earn a specialization certificate in environmental law. The certificate requirements include concentrated course work, a research paper, and clinical practice. Find out more about specialization certificates. Environmental Law Clinics
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Environmental Law and Justice Clinic (ELJC)
In 1994,Golden Gate was one of the first law schools in the country to establish an Environmental Law and Justice Clinic. Working under the supervision of clinic professors, students directly represent environmental organizations and community groups in low-income and minority communities on real-life public health, toxics, and environmental justice matters. -
Environmental Law Clinic
Students can earn academic credit and gain invaluable real world experience interning for government agencies, public interest groups, and national and local environmental organizations, including the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Justice, the California Attorney General's Office, the U.S. Forest Service, Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund, the Sierra Club, Lawyers for Clean Water, and the Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment.
In 2007 the School of Law inaugurated the new GGU Environmental Law Journal, which includes two editions each academic year: featuring a winter Pacific Region edition and a summer edition on the topic of the fall symposium the following November. Other Program Features
- The Environmental Law Society, a student-run organization, organizes beach cleanups, hikes, brown bag lunches, career presentations, symposiums, and other programs and events.
- Students can participate in the California State Bar Law Student Environmental Negotiations Competition, which has been hosted by Golden Gate since its inception in 2000.
- Students can participate in the National Environmental Law Moot Court Competition, held each winter at Pace Law School in New York City.
- Each year, the Environmental Law Society and the Law Review host a daylong symposium on cutting edge environmental issues. Past conferences include the Bush Administration's Policy on Wilderness and Wildlife, Global Climate Change, Protecting the California Coast, and Urban Environmental Law. Click here for information about the Environmental Law Symposium.
- Professor Clifford Rechtschaffen has published extensively in the fields of environmental justice, environmental enforcement, and right-to-know laws. He is the author of two books, Reinventing Environmental Enforcement and the State/Federal Relationship and Environmental Justice: Law, Policy & Regulation. One recent article he wrote is "The Bush Record on the Environment: What a Difference Two Years Make." View this article (pdf). He is a scholar with the Center for Progressive Regulation, on the Executive Committee of the American Association of Law Schools' Environmental Law Section, and an adviser to the Executive Committee of the California Bar's Environmental Law Section.
For graduates who wish to continue their environmental law studies, Golden Gate offers an LLM in Environmental Law. Contact the JD Environmental Law Program
For more information, contact Professor Alan Ramo, acting director of the JD environmental law program: aramo@ggu.edu.
