Paige Espy '14
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
Office of General Counsel
Washington, D.C.
Paige Espy is currently a law clerk in the Energy Projects Section of FERC’s Office of General Counsel; her title will change to attorney-advisor when she is admitted to the bar. She works primarily on Commission orders concerning hydroelectric and natural gas pipeline projects.
Espy says her interest in energy and environmental law grew out of her 1L summer experience as a Stanback fellow at Earthjustice in Florida, which she followed up with a 2L summer position — again supported by a Stanback fellowship — at the Natural Resources Defense Council in Washington, D.C. “I think the Stanback program and my two summer experiences really helped me to become a strong candidate in a very competitive field,” she says.
At Duke Law Espy took a number of environmental courses; worked as a research assistant to Clinical Professor Ryke Longest, who directs the Environmental Law and Policy Clinic; held an externship at the Southern Environmental Law Center: and worked, for two semesters, in the Wrongful Convictions Clinic with Clinical Professor Theresa Newman ’88.
“While my work in the Wrongful Convictions Clinic concerned a different area of the law, the skills and confidence I acquired through that work have been invaluable in beginning my career,” Espy says.