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I’m in environmental law, and here’s what I’ve learned about the career options along the way
Main Post:
This came up in response to someone’s post about considering environmental law, and someone pointed me to this sub (hello there!). Here’s the quick and dirty on what I’ve learned navigating the environmental law path:
I’m in environmental law (kind of, more on that later), and it’s a bit of an odd career path. If you want to do straight law, by and large the primary jobs for plaintiffs (usually trying to get something cleaned up) are with nonprofits and frankly pay garbage, think starting and middling in the $40k-$65k range. After the debt you’re going to rack up, because even with scholarships along the way, you still have to pay rent, buy books, and eat, it’s an unlivable wage. There are government positions, which I had initially planned on pursuing, but they are and will always be at the behest of the current political administration (state or fed) and are drowning in red tape and demotivation. I had a couple internships in the government sector—one with EPA and one with my state’s attorney general—and the atmosphere, fueled by employee attitudes, was bleak. You could join a defense firm and make good money in a decent environment, but imo that defeats the purpose of going into environmental law in the first place. So what’s left at the end of this zero-sum game? Enter environmental insurance, which is what I do. The pay is good, industry culture is great, and you play an active and important role in the cleanup. That said, is it a dream job? No. Would I recommend going to law school specifically for one of the options I mentioned? Also no, unless you’re a big politics/legal geek and would be deeply fulfilled by the education alone.
Feel free to ask questions or start a broader discussion below. I would have loved to have been able to chat with someone about the options and experiences beforehand, and I’d be more than happy to fill that role for someone else.
Top Comment: I wanted to point out that larger NGOs do have dedicated legal teams who go into court, get paid ok if not fantastic money (I think EarthJustice starts attorneys in the 80ks). These jobs are extremely competitive so probably shouldn't be a Plan A.