UC Irvine School of Law Receives $2 Million Grant to Start an Environmental Law Clinic
IRVINE, Calif., May 19, 2009—The University of California, Irvine School of Law has received a $2 million grant to start an Environmental Law Clinic, the first of several legal clinics envisioned for the new law school.
An anonymous foundation of global reach has provided $2 million to create an Environmental Law Clinic to further the public interest in areas of environmental law, environmental health and environmental sustainability. The clinic will give students an opportunity to do hands-on, meaningful, real-life and real-time environmental legal and policy work. Students will work under the close supervision of trained lawyers and experienced professors. The legal clinic will be closely associated with the UCI Program in Public Health.
Erwin Chemerinsky, founding dean of the law school, said he is “delighted” that the law school’s first clinic will be dedicated to protecting the environment.
"This environmental law clinic will provide our students with an incomparable, hands-on experience, allowing them to learn up close what environmental lawyers do on a day-to-day basis," said Chemerinsky. "It will also provide students with the opportunity to help protect the natural resources of Southern California, enhancing the contribution of law in promoting sustainability on earth."
UCI School of Law is also considering starting legal clinics in other areas, Chemerinsky said. "The faculty has approved a clinical requirement for upper-level students as part of the law school's innovative curriculum."
Contact: Rex Bossert, assistant dean for communications, 949-824-3063, rbossert@law.uci.edu
About UCI School of Law
UCI School of Law seeks to create the ideal law school for the 21st century by doing the best job in the country of training lawyers for the practice of law at the highest levels of the profession. Each member of UCI's inaugural class of 68 students will arrive in August supported by a three-year, full-tuition scholarship and a nearly 3:1 student to faculty ratio. The 15 members of UCI’s founding faculty are drawn from top schools and have already been ranked in the top 10 in a recent study. The Law School's innovative curriculum stresses hands-on, interdisciplinary study and public service. About 70 law firms and legal employers have already signed on to interview law students on campus.