E N VI RO N M E NTAL LA W AT VE RMONT LAW S CHO OL On the South Royalton green
Collaborating for Climate Equity The new Climate Justice Practicum is an innovative collaboration between Vermont Law School and the Yale School of Public Health. In the course launched this fall, students attend a weekly seminar with Environmental Justice Clinic Director Marianne Engelman Lado, while also conducting applied fieldwork on the Marianne Engelman Lado frontlines of climate justice. One student team is analyzing transportation justice issues in rural areas with the Conservation Law Foundation. A second group is working with the Connecticut Governor’s Council on Climate Change (GC3), figuring out how to integrate questions of equity into state climate action plans. A third group is working with the nonprofit Public Justice and community-based groups, conducting a climate impact assessment of biogas from California’s industrial dairying operations and analyzing legal options. “It is so important that we expose our students to cross-disciplinary approaches to solving environmental problems,” said Associate Dean for Environmental Programs Jenny Rushlow. “Climate justice is a complex dilemma requiring contributors from many disciplines and walks of life to work together. This new course will give our students the opportunity to practice partnering with scientific experts, as they would in many careers in the environmental field.”
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE MEANS RACIAL JUSTICE Students fight for an environmental movement that serves all communities. Nearly 600 protesters gathered on the South Royalton green on the evening of June 6—an unusual sight in Vermont Law School’s tiny town with a population of around the same size. In a speech during the Rally to End the Violence, Associate Dean Shirley Jefferson JD’86 captivated Associate Dean Shirley Jefferson JD’86 the crowd, chronicling her journey to “SoRo” after growing up in the segregated South and marching for civil conducting outreach and “ We’re going to need rights in Selma, Alabama. selling t-shirts to raise money you lawyers. You can’t Jefferson, who organized the for local organizations. EJLS just tell them what event in response to police co-chair Jameson Davis JD’20/ brutality against Black Americans, the law is. You’ve got MELP’19 followed Jefferson with reminded law students of their a powerful speech about how to change the law and role in the continued fight for “I can’t breathe,” the last words policy in this country.” racial justice. “We’re going to of Eric Garner, apply not only — A SSOCIATE DEAN need you lawyers,” she said to the to chokeholds, but also to the SHIRLEY JEFFERSON JD’86 crowd. “You can’t just tell them choking effects of pollution that what the law is. You’ve got to disproportionately affect BIPOC change the law and policy in this country.” communities. Meanwhile, in the center of the green, students The coming weeks and months revealed the in VLS’s Environmental Justice Law Society (EJLS)— community’s commitment to the movement for which, when founded in 2018 was the first law the long haul. Davis’s words echoed in an official school organization of its kind in the country—were statement of solidarity and call to action published by EJLS, followed with statements from several other student groups including the Food and Agricultural Law Society. Jefferson, environmental law professor Mark Latham, and other faculty members launched an ongoing virtual panel series “Embedded Racism in the Law.” Faculty, students, (continued on page 2)
F rom left: Kendall Keelen JD’22, Jameson Davis JD’20/ MELP’19, and Sierra Suafoa-McClain JD’21
vermontlaw.edu/elc
In the Environmental Justice (EJ) Clinic, students work on real-world cases, partnering with marginalized communities to address racial disparities in polluting sources and ensure residents can fully participate in decisions affecting their health and welfare.
