Environmental Law Clinic

The Environmental Law Clinic provides opportunities to litigate and develop policies to protect natural resources and the environment. The ELC operates in conjunction with the National Wildlife Federation's Great Lakes Natural Resource Center in Ann Arbor. NWF's docket ranges from federal litigation to stop water pollution to advocacy on behalf of endangered species.

Student attorneys testified at hearings and wrote comments on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposal to reclassify the wolf's status in the Western Great Lakes under the Endangered Species Act. Other student attorneys helped stop the power plant industry from obstructing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's development of nationwide rules to reduce emissions of toxic pollutants into the atmosphere. In another case, student attorneys helped sue the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to compel the restoration of water quality in Ohio's lakes and rivers, while other student attorneys helped sue two Michigan confined animal feeding operations in federal district court to stop water pollution. Still other student attorneys helped litigate a case in the Michigan Supreme Court concerning the right of any citizen to sue under the Michigan Environmental Protection Act.

Working closely with NWF staff attorneys, student attorneys taking the Environmental Law Clinic have the opportunity to influence state and national policy and to see that current laws that benefit the environment are upheld.