Events
Free Webinar: Community-led Lawyering Winning Environmental Justice Protections
April 22 @ 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm
Free event! Self-study credit available.
Join us for Community-led Lawyering Winning Environmental Justice Protections, a panel exploring how grassroots organizing and legal advocacy work together to achieve lasting environmental change. Featuring the ELS Trailblazer Award winner Communities for a Better Environment (CBE), this session highlights how community-led case development strengthens legal strategies and drives durable protections.
In October 2025, the Environmental Law Section honored CBE with its annual Trailblazer Award for its pioneering model—since 1978—combining community organizing, legal advocacy, and research to improve conditions in underserved communities. CBE continues to shape the legal landscape through impactful cases and innovations like its legal apprenticeship program.
Panelists will share California-based examples demonstrating how community engagement—from research to litigation—builds power, shapes outcomes, and ensures accountability. Participants will gain practical insights into community-centered lawyering, collaboration, and advancing environmental justice. This interactive session also invites attendees to reflect, connect, and engage with peers, fostering shared learning and future collaboration. Free MCLE credit 1.5 hours Elimination of Bias
Speakers: Laura Gracia, Kendall Chappell, and Roberto Cabrales
Moderator: Jennifer Ganata
Laura is a queer Latinx from Los Angeles, CA and currently serves as Legal Advocate at Communities for a Better Environment (CBE). She previously worked as Richmond Youth Organizer, where she developed CBE’s Richmond Youth for Environmental Justice Program, and as CARE Coordinator, leading resilience hubs and emergency preparedness efforts.
Her past experience includes canvassing for Planned Parenthood, tutoring youth in Watsonville, leading a transportation campaign at UC Santa Cruz, and coordinating a social media campaign with Physicians for Social Responsibility focused on climate-related health impacts. She holds a B.A. in Environmental Studies and Art from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Laura is also a Legal Apprentice with CBE under California’s Law Office Study Program and passed the First-Year Law Students Exam (“Baby Bar”) in 2024.
Kendall Chappell is a federal climate justice legal fellow at Communities for a Better Environment. Her work has focused on the environmental justice impacts of oil drilling and oil refineries on nearby communities in an effort to advance equity-based climate policy priorities.
Kendall graduated from UCLA School of Law in May 2025, where she specialized in Environmental Law, Critical Race Studies, and Public Interest Law and Policy. In law school, she focused on environmental justice law and policy issues through working with the Frank G. Wells Environmental Law Clinic and serving as the Environmental Law Society’s Environmental Justice Chair.
We are committed to accessibility! Virtual events are equipped with closed captioning. To request an in-person accommodation, send us a note at accessibility@calawyers.org or contact us at 916-516-1760 for assistance.