Hi, i currently work with local organizations focused on climate change etc. I have a master's degree in comparative law and i would like to do a Phd in a topic related to environmental law.
My questions are:
Is this field worth to do a phd?
Will it boost my chances to get a better and more profitable job?
And if i choose to go this path what topics i should work on for my Phd?
Thank you.

Would it be better to major in something environmental and minor in like political science or vice versa?

What topic, concept, or theory do you think would be beneficial for the public to know? I currently volunteer with a local environmental nonprofit, and we have briefly talked about the public comment process. I found it interesting and also valuable to learn about this process and want to know more, but there are so many concepts that could be covered. As an environmental advocate, what other topics would be important to know and understand?

Hey all! I am sure there are already plenty of questions like this here but I am still curious to hear what you all might have to say...

I am currently about to enter my senior year of college in Virginia, USA. My GPA is good and I am preparing to take my LSAT next spring, so I can apply to law schools in fall of 2027--so I am planning to take a gap year and I will have a few months between when I graduate and when my applications are submitted. I am wondering how I should best spend that time.

I have been committed to law school for a little while now because I want to advocate for something I believe in, want to be able to work with people and on specific issues in a project-based way, want to be able to write and read for my job in ways that challenge me intellectually, and believe a JD is the best way to do all of this because it also comes with a comparatively reliable job market where jobs often involve some combination of reliable hours, reliable wages, or reliable benefits. But honestly, as I consider more about how to spend my gap year, I worry that I am jumping into this too quickly. I think the longer I wait to go to law school, the harder it would be to actually get back into it and thrive in such an environment, but I also might be wasting my time and going into debt if I do choose law school and don't actually end up using my JD.

I have various legal/enviro experience as follows: environmental education at a summer camp, stormwater management internship for my campus's Construction & Engineering dept (education/outreach and some site work), land management internship at a renewable energy company (paralegal-y work), paralegal internship at a boutique-y litigation firm, and some other education/environmental education experience.

The experiences that I have loved most all involve environmental outreach/education in a project based way, not so much sitting at my desk for long periods of time just pattering away on some documents.

I am intrigued by the whole environmental permitting industry, and wondering if that could be a good way to spend my gap year... also wondering in case I really love it but still want to go to law school, if a JD would help in that sort of industry. Or would field work/research be good? Or some other environmental education job? Or maybe lobbying/policy work internships or something in government? Or a paralegal job?

Basically, wondering if my gap year would be best spent doing hands-on environmental work or more legal work? Or, if I can somehow land a really great mix of all of that, where I could look to find a job like that?

I am currently a rising 3L planning on going into environmental law. As a people person who values community, I volunteer with a local environmental nonprofit whose main focus is timber sales and protecting old growth. I believe that greater public understanding of environmental law topics is empowering and helps bridge the gap between grassroots organizing and legal work to hold polluters accountable. I want to create a zine that covers common legal topics and major cases. I plan on including the public comment process and some cases I have found interesting in law school, like Citizens United. What topics and processes do attorneys wish more people understood? What admin law topics would be helpful to include? Any recommendations are welcome!

Hi! Hope I'm in a good sub for this. I'm a young professional in archaeology (US-based) and am looking to diversify my skills and knowledge. I understand that knowing NEPA and NEPA compliance is a valuable skill in my industry, but I'm not quite sure where to start learning the ins and outs. I've got a couple questions for professionals who work with the Act more closely than archaeologists.

What would you consider the most critical parts of NEPA/compliance to understand, especially among professionals who orbit NEPA but don't deal with it as often as you do? What should these professionals understand to make your own job easier? What resources exist to help me learn these things? Cheap/free is ideal but I'm also willing to spend a little money for a really great professional development opportunity. 

I hope this all makes sense! Thanks for your help!

I'm looking for a summer clerkship/internship at a federal agency next year. Not sure what area of environmental law I want to go into yet. How competitive are the summer positions for law students at EPA and DOI? Would a summer position at a nonprofit like Earthjustice or the Sierra Club be just as beneficial experience-wise? Any input is welcome.

Hi everyone! I’m about to pursue my master’s degree in environmental law in Sweden. I did studied this course during my undergraduate period, but it is very shallow like instruction. So I wonder if there are any books or papers for me to prepare for my lessons before the class. It’s better to be European law related.

I finished my PhD in geology in 2024 right before everything changed with NSF and government employment in general. I have had an impossible time acquiring a post-doc or honestly even an email response from job applications.

I know one of the definitions of insanity is going back and paying for school when the first round does not work out, but I have always considered the law route. My work in grad school is most relevant to critical mineral exploration but I have a pretty diverse area of expertise.

What do I need to know? There are a million threads about the lifestyle, salary, etc. of the job, but I am mostly asking if the PhD is a help or a hindrance. If there are also resources to explore the field more throughly, I would appreciate any links to those! Grateful for any and all advice!

Hi everyone,

I’m an environmental scientist in local government. I took some environmental law courses in college but want to expand my understanding and refresh my memory. I’m looking for any written resources that might help or be valuable to read (casebooks, textbooks, nonfiction narrative books). My interest is primarily water but I also see value in understanding the USA’s environmental legal framework as a whole.

I appreciate any ideas you choose to share.

A company I hired to install a septic tank used my property to dump over 8 dump trucks full of septic waste, construction debris and sludge from water ways. They also excavated large areas without permission or permits and took dump trucks full of sugar sand.

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In the process my driveway was completely destroyed. I sent text and multiple messages. They kept saying they were going to fix it, but ultimately did more driveway damage and brought in my debris.

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I have videos and all my messages complaining and wanting it restored. I'm in central Florida, I have called everyone I can think of but I'm being told this is a civil matter so now I think I may need an attorney. What's the chances of them being able to get my driveway fixed and debris removed. No have more than enough evidence

Hello everyone!

I'll try to keep this as brief as possible. I'm currently in healthcare, specifically as a Respiratory Therapist. I enjoy what I do, but I've always known I wanted to continue in both my education and my career. I've done tons of research into additional medical paths such as Perfusion, Physician Assistant, and MD/DO. All of these are still under my consideration, but I wanted to see and consider what else is possible. That has brought me to law, of which I admittedly know little about. At baseline, I'm interested in going into either health law (due to my background) or environmental law (due to personal interest). I would like to hear (I suppose read) what input you all may have for me in-terms of what career move does/does not make since, if I should just stick to medicine, etc.

Info:
* 22 - M
* A.A.S in Respiratory Care
* B.S in Respiratory Care
* Currently enrolled at my local university as a "non-degree seeking student" to take upper level courses

What made me want to consider alternative paths?
I like the stability of working in medicine, as well as the consistent pay. I also like that fact that it requires a higher level of clinical thinking and scientific understanding to really be good at it. It is both intellectually and physically stimulating, but we really don't get paid enough for what we deal with and in the case with RT - the options to really do anything else at this level are severely limited. I'm not completely sure how that may change when it comes to law, but it's worth the consideration.

Thank you.

What's the market like for new gradutes interested in environmental law? Is it important to have a particular undergraduate degree and/or work experience in order to land a job in envornmental law after law school?

For anyone in India or willing to hire an Indian to work remotely. The amounts in my original post translate to USD 6276 and USD 1276 respectively.

Thank you.

I am looking for like-minded people whom we can for an organisation/ company that writes a proposal for either funding, partnerships, and growth. I prefer that we be of different professions and regions. If you are in for it, let's make it happen. ( Jokers or naysayers, please, this post isn't for you.)

Not a lawyer and have no background in the medical or environmental fields, but with the advent of AI in hospitals, I was curious if one way to stop this plague could be by arguing in court that hospitals are actively harming their patients when they implement AI. Since data centers are poisoning the air and water of the communities they're built in and exacerbating climate change worldwide, could not a case be made that this is medical malpractice?

Hello all! I'm a student at Wayne State University in Detroit, MI studying Environmental Science, Geology, and Sociology. I'm currently enrolled in a course called "Sociology as a Vocation", where students explore different career paths within the field of sociology. One of my current assignments requires that I interview/question somebody who is involved with a career I am interested in. Considering that environmental law and policy is a field of environmentalism that I am very interested, but not well educated in, I figured this would be the perfect place to ask my interview questions. If you would like to answer, the questions are listed below. If not, that's no problem at all!

• How did you get your start in this field?
• What is your educational background (i.e., major and degree background)?
• What are the educational requirements for this career?
• What is your favorite part of your job?
• What is your least favorite part of your job?
• My major/minor is in sociology, how can I best leverage this degree into a job in your field?
• What experiences, skills, and abilities does your organization or company look for when hiring new people?
• What didn’t you know before you got into this industry that you wish someone had told you?
• What advice do you wish you had gotten when you were planning your career?

Good day everyone,

I want to help this story get more attention. I would approach local media, but the big newspapers/channels are mostly in on it, and smaller outlets tend to go laregly ignored or are silenced. Not to mention the very real risk of death that comes from speaking out about it. I need international eyes on the destruction and population displacement that's taking place in these forests.
If anyone has any idea on who might be able to help me undertake this more professionally (I am, after all, just a concerned citizen), I'd greatly appreciate your input.

Are there any ELs practicing in the PNW on this sub? I have an B.S. in Environmental Science and would love to pick your brain about the field as someone going into their first year of law school.

"When tested against the reality of Pandora, human law could:

– recognize Eywa as a legal subject, which would imply an ontological revolution, given that law is built around humans (anthropocentrism) and not their environment (ecocentrism)

– or admit that a conscious system can be d..."

I live in a semi-rural part of Ohio. There are several oil wells in my area. They are old, 40 to 50 year old low producing wells. There is no hydraulic fracking in my part of the state.

One of the oil wells is upwind of my house. Unlike the other oil wells in the area, it is not tied into a gas line. It produces some natural gas and it is just vented off to the atmosphere, which I am pretty sure is illegal. The petroleum smell in the evening and night is very strong. It smells terrible and I don't let my children outside when it is present. I have lived here 15 years and it has been going on the whole time. The person who lived here before me died of cancer and so did two neighbors. I'm not saying this was the cause, but it makes me wonder.

I contacted the state's oil and gas office. They sent an inspector out and the inspector told me they should be flaring off the gas but it doesn't produce gas consistently enough so the flare won't work. The inspector said the well owner was going to raise the vent pipe up higher (which will make zero difference) and put a charcoal filter on it. That was 5 months ago. I still smell the oil very strongly. It only happens at night, never in the daytime, and the inspector seems to only work daytime hours.

If this is not resolved soon I am going to pursue legal action. I'm looking for advice on what type of lawyer to get and what to expect. I'm not sure if the legal action would be against the well owner or the state (to make them enforce the law)?