About the Environmental Law and Justice Clinic

The Environmental Law and Justice Clinic (ELJC) at GGU School of Law was established in 1994 and is one of the first law clinics in the U.S. to prioritize environmental justice in its work. Our mission is to train GGU law students to be effective and ethical lawyers and to improve environmental conditions for communities of color and low-income people. Our geographic focus is the San Francisco Bay Area and California.

ELJC is staffed by two faculty attorneys, one attorney fellow, and our student clinicians. ELJC clinicians are certified under State Bar of California rules to perform many of the tasks of an attorney. Under close faculty supervision, they interview and counsel clients, develop legal strategies, draft legal documents, appear at hearings, and negotiate with opposing parties. The Clinic also has an environmental scientist on staff.

The Clinic and Environmental Justice

The San Francisco Bay Area has numerous densely urbanized zones that are hot spots of industrial activity and traffic. People who live or work closer to these places are likely to be exposed to higher levels of air, water, and other forms of pollution, and thus bear a higher burden of environmental health risk than the population in general. Environmental injustice exists because underprivileged people--people of color and those in lower economic categories--are more likely to live and work near urban pollution hot spots.

In recent years, the presence of environmental inequity has been confirmed by many studies. Evidence is also emerging that people living in highly impacted areas become more sensitive to environmental pollution: resistance to disease may be undermined by the cumulative effect of a series of adverse conditions, including pollution, noise, and socio-psychological stress. More recently, global climate change has been named as another source of environmental inequity. For example, global warming will exacerbate heat waves and raise air pollution levels in some of our large urban centers, where most underprivileged people live.

Over the last two decades, numerous Bay Area community and environmental organizations have focused on the problem of inequitable pollution exposure. The goals of these groups include eliminating environmental discrimination, reducing cumulative environmental health risks, establishing health-protective regulations and ensuring their strict enforcement, and having a voice in industrial permit proceedings.

ELJC offers services to environmental justice advocates so that they may work more effectively in a political environment that is frequently indifferent and sometimes inhospitable to these objectives. We help advocates to engage with different government agencies, from the local and state, to the national levels. We are a free resource for groups who want to challenge polluting industries, so that they pay attention to public health and not just profits.

After several decades of organizing, environmental justice advocates have convinced government agencies--at both the state and federal level--to craft a variety of environmental justice plans and policies. Today, the movement for environmental justice is in a new and perhaps more difficult phase. It is now time for policy suggestions to be incorporated concretely into environmental regulation and decision making. This step will require significant political organizing and a more technically sophisticated environmental justice movement.

Support for Neighborhoods with Pollution Problems

A large part of our work consists of providing legal services to communities facing a variety of environmental pollution problems, such as toxic air emissions from power plants and manufacturing facilities. Matters that we normally handle include: enforcement of federal and state pollution laws, participation in permit proceedings, and challenges to environmental rulemaking or the siting of hazardous facilities. Our staff scientist provides technical assistance to our legal staff on these cases as well as other clinic projects. The Clinic also advises clients on options to solve problems without bringing a lawsuit.

Working for New Policies to Reduce Pollution

Additionally, ELJC works in collaboration with environmental advocates to strengthen regional and national environmental policies to protect public health and the environment. In one of our projects, for example, the Clinic's staff scientist provides technical support and policy analysis to the Bay Area Environmental Health Collaborative (BAEHC), a coalition of more than thirty Bay Area environmental and community groups advocating for changes in regional air pollution policies.

For additional information, see Cases and Projects

Honors

The Clinic's work on behalf of environmental justice communities and in the field of clinical legal education has been recognized locally and nationally:

• In 2009, the US EPA Region 9 presented ELJC with an "Environmental Award for Outstanding Achievement."
• In 2009, we received a $300,000 cy pres award from the the law firm of Saveri & Saveri, Inc. as part of the California Smokeless Tobacco Antitrust Settlement.
• In 2006, the Clinical Legal Education Association gave its "Award for Excellence in a Public Interest Case or Project" to the Clinic for our work on the Southeast San Francisco Energy Project. The award recognizes projects that "significantly redress a high-priority need of a low-income community."
• In 2004, San Francisco County recognized the Clinic for its work in protecting the environment.
• In 2000, Environment Now gave former Clinic Director Alan Ramo the "Wells Family Award" for his work on urban environmental issues.
• On Earth Day 1999, the US Environmental Protection Agency honored the Clinic along with one other San Francisco public interest organization for our work in protecting the environment.
• In 1998, the Clinic was one of three university presenters at a plenary meeting of the American Association of Law Schools' workshop on "New Strategies for Inner Cities: Academics, Professionals and Communities in Partnership."
• In 1997, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors commended the Clinic's work with the Bayview-Hunters Point community.
• In 1995, the American Bar Association's Section on Natural Resources, Environmental and Energy Law gave ELJC its student Law clinic award for our work in Bayview-Hunters Point.