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Environmental and Energy Law

Careers in Environment and Energy law are interconnected in terms of subject matter, practice type, and employer type.

Environmental lawyers usually represent individuals whose land has been contaminated by environmental toxins; citizens suing on behalf of public bodies of land and water; or businesses, corporations, or landowners who might be responsible for the pollution or who need to move through a labyrinthine regulatory process. Many environmental lawyers represent all three throughout their careers.

Energy lawyers tend to work with businesses or utilities that are involved with extraction, procurement, and production of energy to ensure regulatory compliance with the numerous safety and environmental laws that exist. They also work with the federal agencies or NGOs that seek to implement or influence energy law.

Work in these fields involves detailed statutory and regulatory analysis, with attorneys interpreting a range of statutes, such as the Clean Air Act (CAA), the Clean Water Act (CWA), and the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA).

In the private sector, law firms of all types may provide opportunities in the areas of environment and energy, with mid-to large law firms providing more opportunities with the energy law subspeciality, particularly in geographic regions that have energy-rich land. As in other areas, smaller firms tend to represent individual clients and larger firms tend to represent corporate clients. There are also numerous positions with in-house counsel and corporations that may be available as more businesses are working to minimize the environmental impact of development.

Government agencies have also hired an increasing number of attorneys. In addition to the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), all fifty states have agencies that implement environmental and energy laws. Attorneys may also find opportunities in non-profit and advocacy groups with a focus on the environment and sustainability.

Courses

Courses designated as "primary" are foundational, while those listed as "secondary" contain relevant and related content. "Co-curricular" courses are credit-bearing extra-curricular activities, while "experiential" courses are practice-based offerings. Please keep in mind that the focus of any course will vary depending on the instructor.

Primary Courses

200: Legislation and Administrative Law 3 credits PRIMARY

This course surveys the legislative process, fundamentals of statutory interpretation, and the work of administrative agencies, with special emphasis on administrative rule-making process.

414: Energy Law 1 to 3 credits PRIMARY

This course looks at the law and policy related to US energy sources (hydro, coal, petroleum, natural gas, nuclear, renewables) and energy uses (electric power, transportation, efficiency) -- integrating legal, historical, technical, economic and environmental analysis. The readings come primarily from an online wikibook prepared by the professor and students over a number of years, as well as various online materials. Grading is based on class participation (incuding as special participants for particular topics and work on group projects), an in-class presentation, and a final research paper.

512: Environmental Law 2 or 3 credits PRIMARY

This course will help you understand modern environmental law - its genesis, its strengths, and its weaknesses - and how you can use it, and perhaps shape it, in your career. After covering basic principles of constitutional and administrative law as they apply to environmental regulation, the course focuses on the major federal environmental statutes, including the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Air Act, and the Clean Water Act. The course uses actual case examples to illustrate major concepts.

530: Natural Resources Law 2 credits PRIMARY

Our economy, livelihoods, and society rest upon natural resources. This course explores the legal and policy norms for owning, managing, and stewarding natural resources such as land, ocean, wildlife, forests, minerals, oil and gas, and our climate. We will also study how the U.S. manages the recreational and spiritual values of our natural resources. The class will use a mix of assessment tools, including in-class exercises and exams over the course of the semester.

536: Land Use Regulation and Planning 2 or 3 credits PRIMARY

This course will explore the regulation of land use, including the scope of the zoning power, access to and development of government land, and resource extraction.

656: International Environmental Law 2 or 3 credits PRIMARY

This seminar will examine and assess the legal regimes nations have developed to address international and global environmental problems, including climate change, ozone depletion, marine pollution, and the extinction of species.

Secondary Courses

352: FDA Law: Doctrine, Policy, and Practice 2 or 3 credits SECONDARY

This course will introduce students to basic principles of food and drug law and examine how significant doctrines of constitutional, administrative, and criminal law have been elaborated and applied in the food and drug context. The United States Food and Drug Administration has a pervasive role in American society: the agency reports that it regulates products accounting for 20 cents of every dollar spent by consumers. Infused by the instructor's experience of nearly 30 years of legal practice in the field, in both government and industry, the course will also explore the complex interplay of legal, ethical, policy, scientific/medical, and political considerations that underlie FDA’s regulatory authority, its policy-making, and its enforcement activity. "Case studies" will predominate in the curriculum. They are intended to bring the material “to life” – to illustrate the practical experience of lawyers, and FDA's policy and enforcement choices, in the crucible of managing highly challenging regulatory issues.

396: Biosciences, Causation, and Tort Law 1 credit SECONDARY

"This course builds on tort law and involves its application in a specialized area that focuses on the harm suffered. Rather than traumatic injuries, toxic torts are about diseases suffered as a result of the wrongful conduct of another. Of course, automobiles, baseball bats, and widgets don’t cause disease. Instead, diseases (for our purposes) are caused by drugs, chemicals, minerals (asbestos is, after all, a type of mineral), radiation, cigarette smoke, and similar substances.* Those substances, the diseases they cause and the lawsuits they spawn frame this course. Among the many special problems that exist in this area of tort law is causation, and that will be the focus of the course: addressing the theory of factual causation and the understanding the different types of scientific evidence brought to bear on the issue of causation. Caution: This course has a heavy science component and a little bit standard statistics of the sort taught in an undergraduate liberal arts course. If you came to law school to avoid any further contact with science or basic math, this course is not for you."

443: Sustainable Corporations 2 or 3 credits SECONDARY

This course considers the sustainability of the modern US corporation – that is, whether the corporation is capable of meeting current social needs while enabling future generations to meet their needs. The course looks at the corporation’s current design: its externalization of social costs, the short-termism of corporate decision-making, the “groupthink” culture of corporate management, and the corporation as political actor. It then considers some current responses to these non-sustainable attributes: planet (voluntary environmental stewardship), people (voluntary EG movement), and profits (institutional shareholder activism). The course concludes by considering paradigm shifts: the new benefit corporation form, revamped ESG disclosure, new shareholder-management consortia — as well the corporation as moral organism and re-conceptualizations of corporate leadership. Students work in groups on a weekly basis, submit reflection papers for each unit, and write a paper at the end of the term on a “corporate sustainability” topic of their choice.

498: Food, Agriculture, and Environmental Law 2 or 3 credits SECONDARY

This course offers an overview of the historical, legal, and policy framework for food and agriculture in the United States. Agricultural and food laws and regulations play a vital role in determining both the health outcomes for our nation and the level of environmental impact to shared natural resources such as air, water, soil, and biodiversity. The course discusses federal environmental statutes in the context of food and agricultural production, and provides an introduction to the U.S. Farm Bill, pesticides, farmed animal welfare, genetically modified foods, food access, food safety, and labeling schemes.

511: Cannabis Law 2 credits SECONDARY

This course will teach students about the emerging field of hemp law; how it impacts growers, processors, retailers, and other parts of the supply chain. Although hemp cultivation has been legalized at the federal level, the laws in each state still vary. This class will explore the intersection of federal and state law and the USDA’s final rule for the domestic hemp production program. In addition, the class will explore the role of other federal agencies in regulating hemp and hemp product.

641: Regulatory Law and Policy 0 to 3 credits SECONDARY

This course, taught as a seminar, examines the advocacy skills that lawyers used in regulatory practice to persaude agencies to adopt actions that their clients favor. Any student who thinks she or he might practice in front of a regulatory agency should benefit from the course. There is no casebook to buy. All readings are posted on Sakai.

642: Animal Law 2 credits SECONDARY

A survey of legal, ethical, and policy issues regarding non-human animals. Topics include anti-cruelty laws; medical and scientific research; liability for injuries to, or caused by animals; hunting laws; and standing for animals. Students will write a paper in this course. Offered on a periodic basis.

657: Biotechnology Law and Policy 2 credits SECONDARY

Biotechnology is a major growth industry and both large and boutique law firms are establishing biotech or “life sciences” practice groups. This course surveys a range of legal topics in this field, such as: FDA regulation of drugs and devices, regulation of medical research, products liability, insurance coverage of pharmaceuticals, intellectual property, and genetics. Offered on a periodic basis.

665: Toxic Torts 3 credits SECONDARY

This course examines the theories of liability and issues of proof surrounding toxic torts, which include drugs, industrial chemicals, and hazardous waste, as well as the remedial challenges they pose. A significant component of the class is coverage of the sciences that bear on causation: epidemiology, toxicology, and genetics, which are central to practice in this area in which factual causation is almost always in dispute.

Experiential Courses

345: Semester in Practice 10 or 11 credits EXPERIENTIAL

This is the field placement component of a full term externship program and is paired with the Externship Lecture course. Total credits between Semester in Practice and Externship Lecture will total 13. The number of credit hours awarded to an individual student will determine the hours of work required at the field placement and meet or exceed the ABA standards. In accordance with ABA guidelines, students work at a placement under a supervising attorney. C-LAW 300.

497: Introduction to Community Lawyering 4 credits EXPERIENTIAL

This four-hour, experiential learning course will introduce students to community lawyering and how lawyers can contribute their legal knowledge and skills to support community identified initiatives that highlight the community’s collective power to bring about long-lasting or sustainable change. In today’s evolving society, lawyers often help individual and corporate clients navigate the complexities of the law which is now becoming increasingly connected to concepts around diversity, inclusion and equity. This class will help sharpen your lens around these concepts and develop you into a well-rounded lawyer prepared to practice in a more diverse world. You will work hands on with a community client group(s) facing challenges involving affordable housing, displacement, land use, zoning, and historical preservation. This course will help you understand the intersection of the law and justice and deepen your creative and critical thinking to address the community client’s concern. You will learn that community lawyering involves viewing legal problems through a community’s perspective. You will also learn how lawyers can aid communities in solving their own problems, which fall often between what is legal and what is just.

676: Summer Externship 4 credits EXPERIENTIAL

This course is currently available only in the summer. The director of the externship designates one or more cities in North and South Carolina, usually including Charlotte, NC, and offers the students externships in a designated practice area. The practice areas vary from summer to summer. Students meet weekly with the director to integrate and apply the doctrinal insights received elsewhere in the law school curriculum and in the subject matter of the field placements. The course fulfills the practical skills requirement.

690: Environmental Law and Policy Clinic 4 credits EXPERIENTIAL

The course will allow students to learn about the real work of environmental law and policy through a combination of intensive training on the skills needed to work with clients and grappling with environmental law and policy matters with which clients need help. At the commencement of the semester, students’ classwork will focus on lawyering skills and the basics of administrative and environmental law through two Saturday intensives. During the course of the semester, a weekly, two-hour class meeting will build upon these skills and include practitioners from industry, private practice, government, and non-profits. In addition, this weekly meeting will serve as a touch-point for learning and sharing with other students how their representation of clients is progressing, what concerns and issues are arising, and what learnings they are taking away. Students will be expected to put 10-12 hours of effort into the clinic per week in keeping with the 4 credit requirement. They will keep timesheets and a journal of their experience.

694: Environmental Law and Policy Clinic 2 credits EXPERIENTIAL

Open only to students who have completed Law 690. This continuation of the Environmental Law and Policy Clinic in the fall semester allows students to focus on active Clinic matters that need support during the fall semester. Students will work on Clinic matters and meet to discuss their progress with the Clinic Director and each other.

Co-Curricular Activities

549: Moot Court Competition 1 credit ACTIVITY

Seminar in advanced appellate advocacy involving research and drafting of briefs and presentation of oral arguments as a member of an interscholastic moot court team. Students may repeat this course for a maximum of two hours credit.

Faculty

The following faculty are knowledgeable about the topic and may be a useful resource for you.

Alyse Bertenthal

Alyse Bertenthal

Associate Professor of Law

John H. Knox

John H. Knox

Henry C. Lauerman Professor of International Law

Sarah J. Morath

Sarah J. Morath

Professor of Law

Alan Palmiter

Alan Palmiter

William T. Wilson, III Presidential Chair for Business Law

Scott Schang

Scott Schang

Professor of Practice

Dick Schneider

Dick Schneider

Professor of Law

Sidney Shapiro

Sidney Shapiro

Frank U. Fletcher Chair in Administrative Law

Related Pathways

Regulatory Compliance

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Law Firm

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In-House Counsel and Corporations

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Government

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