Environmental Law and Policy Clinic
The Environmental Law and Policy Clinic is training the next generation of leaders to solve environmental problems and providing access to justice in underserved communities.
In this clinic, students from Duke Law, Duke University's Nicholas School of the Environment, and other graduate schools develop a broad array of tools and insights from their various disciplines — law, policy, and science — while working together to handle cases using interdisciplinary approaches.
Students develop skills in litigation, mediation, negotiation, and conflict resolution, and they often are able to contribute their own entrepreneurial solutions to environmental dilemmas. They use a collaborative approach to work on a wide variety of matters, encompassing water quality, air quality, natural resources conservation, sustainable development, public-trust resources, and environmental justice.
Students participate in classroom seminars and site investigations, represent their clients at public hearings and agency proceedings, and are actively involved in litigation, transactional cases, and policy development. They have helped community organizations stop large polluters from damaging human health and environment. Student teams worked alongside these groups to prevent the construction of a Navy jet landing field which would have condemned an environmental justice community and to prevent the building of a huge coal-burning cement kiln next to river already heavily polluted by mercury. They have also helped develop successful policies that advance organic and sustainable agriculture and have been instrumental in shaping regulations that protect children in licensed North Carolina childcare centers from lead in drinking water.
The clinic is a joint venture of Duke Law and the Nicholas School of the Environment.
On behalf of its client, Oceana, the Clinic worked with the NC Department of Natural and Cultural Resources (DNCR) to develop a plastic reduction initiative for NC State Parks. In Fall 2024, teams of clinic students worked with Anne-Elisabeth Baker MEM ‘24, former Clinic student and now Environmental Policy Fellow at DNCR, to survey NC Parks to identify and better understand sources of plastic waste. Clinic students presented findings and recommendations to phase out plastic bags and bottled water with park rangers and other state officials at the Interpretation & Education Summit in December 2024. In Spring 2025, the DNCR began implementing a pilot program at William B. Umstead and Raven Rock State Parks with a goal to expand the program to more parks.
Law in Action: The Clinic Experience
Clinical Professors Ryke Longest and Michelle Nowlin, co-directors of the Duke Environmental Law & Policy Clinic, talk about the clinic's work, how students get involved, the skills that students learn, and their favorite part about leading the clinic.
The clinic trains the next generation of leaders to solve environmental problems and provide access to justice in underserved communities.
Faculty & Staff
Ryke Longest
John H. Adams Clinical Professor of Law
Clinical Professor of Environmental Sciences and Policy
Co-Director, Duke Environmental Law and Policy Clinic919-613-7207
Michelle Benedict Nowlin
Clinical Professor of Law
Co-Director, Environmental Law and Policy Clinic919-613-8502
In the News
We serve nonprofit organizations working with low-wealth communities throughout the United States, primarily serving clients in North Carolina and the southeastern states. On occasion we take on individuals as clients and also work on matters in other nations, as well. If your community is facing an environmental problem and needs legal representation, we may be able to help. Please fill out the Contact Us form to request an intake questionnaire and find out whether your case might be a good fit with the services we provide. Organizations seeking new representation must return a completed intake questionnaire by April 1 for fall semester projects and by November 1 for spring semester projects.
Support the Environmental Law and Policy Clinic by making an online gift or pledge to further the mission of the clinic.