Environmental Law Section

In response to the housing shortage, California has been strengthening the state-mandated housing allocations for regions to assign to local governments. The state now requires streamlined local approval for housing projects in jurisdictions that are not producing enough housing, ties transportation funding to compliance, and is now suing some local governments for inaction. Join outgoing California Department of Housing and Community Development director Ben Metcalf to discuss this process and where policy may go from here. Read more

Are you a member of the Environmental Law Section and interested in sharing career advice with law students? Read more

The Environmental Law Section is pleased to announce its Diversity & Inclusion Fellowship program for Summer 2020. The program provides law students an opportunity to spend 8 to 10 weeks over the summer practicing environmental, energy, land use, and/or natural resources law at a participating government agency or public interest organization. Read more

The Environmental Law Conference at Yosemite® is nationally recognized as the largest and most prestigious gathering in California of leaders in environmental, land use and natural resources law. We hope you will join us and many of our nation’s top environmental officials, lawyers and other professionals in the spectacular setting of Yosemite. Read more

This program offers 1.5 participatory MCLE credit; 1 Elimination of Bias. You must register in advance to participate. Certain environmental laws explicitly provide for government-to-government consultation between California’s Native Nations and local, state and federal agencies, but what does “consultation” mean? And what role does cultural bias play in the failure to recognize tribal governments as governments? This panel will describe tribal sovereignty, explore the unbreakable link between tribal sovereignty and the government-to-government concept, and describe the respect tribal leaders… Read more

This program offers 1.5 participatory MCLE credit. You must register in advance to participate. Is Climate Change the next Big Tobacco? A wave of lawsuits in California seeks to hold fossil fuel companies accountable for their contribution to climate change. In 2017, the Counties of San Mateo, Marin, and Santa Cruz, and the Cities of San Francisco, Oakland, Imperial Beach, and Santa Cruz filed complaints against more than three dozen fossil fuel companies under theories including public nuisance, private nuisance,… Read more

This program offers 1.5 participatory MCLE credit. You must register in advance to participate. In January 2018, Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke and the Trump Administration announced a plan to allow offshore drilling along the entirety of the Pacific coast, along with the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, and in the waters off Alaska. Shortly thereafter, the Administration took steps to exempt the Florida coast from the leasing plan—but federal waters along the entire West Coast will remain open to… Read more

This program offers 1.5 participatory MCLE credit. You must register in advance to participate. This interactive roundtable panel brings together distinguished in-house counsel from a variety of corporate sectors. Each of the panelists has environmental law expertise and responsibilities, and will discuss common aspects of their positions, as well as some of the unique challenges they confront in managing complex environmental matters. Topics will include their companies’ management of environmental affairs; examples of representative matters; an in-house counsel’s responsibilities in… Read more

The Environmental Law Section Update is sponsored by the Environmental Law Section of the California Lawyers Association and reports on recent California case law of note, as well as significant federal case law and state and federal regulatory developments. Read more

Summer 2020 Program Vivienne Pismarov, of UC Davis Law School, spent her summer at Earthjustice in Los Angeles. “The most memorable experience through my fellowship was the opportunity to help submit a public comment to oppose a proposed nuclear waste rule. I had the privilege to help the team from the beginning of the case, all the way to the deadline. Aside from developing my research and writing skills along the way, I also learned what it means to be a part of a team… Read more