Environmental Law Section

In 1969, the Legislature enacted California’s Housing Element Law. Since then, local governments (cities and counties) must periodically adopt a housing element, which is a plan to accommodate their fair share of the “regional housing need” in their community. In a two-step process, the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) establishes the amount of housing at varying affordability levels for each locality. First, HCD establishes an amount needed for each region in the state. Second, the regional councils of governments apply a methodology to allocate the regional housing need to local governments. Read more

Join the Environmental Law Section Summer 2023 Read-Along as we read Cynthia Barnett's Rain: A Natural and Cultural History.  Read more

The Environmental Law Section is delighted to introduce our 2023 Diversity and Inclusion Fellows. Each of the Section’s Fellows will spend 8 to 10 weeks this summer practicing environmental, energy, land use, and/or natural resources law at a participating government agency of public interest organization, and will receive a $6,500 stipend from the Section and Fellowship sponsors. Please join us in congratulating our outstanding 2023 class of Fellows. Read more

It’s been a busy Spring for ELS! On March 24, UCLA Law School hosted our annual Law Student Negotiation Competition. We had 7 schools and 10 teams. First Place was UCLA School of Law, Samantha Yeager & Emmett Barnes; Second Place was Chapman University, Shehzaib Rahim & Paula Dizon. Read more

In this event, we will learn how to engage with Latino stakeholders in discussion with Jose Gonzalez, Founder, Latino Outdoors. Read more

Come to the Environmental Law Climate Change Conference on Friday, April 7, 2023. Read more

Are you interested in working on in-person programs, publications, social media, webinars, legislation, mentorships, sustainability issues, diversity and belonging in our practice area, or recruiting law students to the practice of environmental law?  If you said yes to any of these, then please consider applying to be a member of our section’s Executive Committee for our next term.  Read more

Would you like to get involved with the Environmental Law Section but cannot devote significant time?  Read more

Clifford T. Lee, a highly respected water law attorney and recipient of the 2021 Environmental Law Section Lifetime Achievement Award, died suddenly in late November 2022.  Read more

Happy New Year!  ELS is preparing excellent programs for 2023. Read more