Experiential Learning
Learn by Experiencing – Environmental Law Externships
Pace Law School emphasizes preparing its graduates for the practice of law. Developing practical skills through trial advocacy training, clinical education, and professional job experience is an essential component of legal education. Pace Law School’s programs are designed to ensure that students have the opportunity to develop a core understanding of the law, as well as the critical, analytical, and professional skills necessary to succeed in a legal career. Through externships, clinics, moot courts, and other hands-on experiences, students learn not just how to think like a lawyer – but to actually become one.
For information on what courses are offered, credits, and descriptions, click HERE
For information on research opportunities, please click HERE
The Pace Environmental Litigation Clinic
Directed by Professor Karl S. Coplan and Professor Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Pace Law School's award-winning Environmental Litigation Clinic immerses students in the representation of public interest groups-primarily Riverkeeper, Inc., which safeguards the Hudson River and its environment. Students represent clients in court under a special court order and their efforts have led to precedent-setting decisions by federal courts under both the Clean Water Act and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.
United Nations Environmental Diplomacy Externship
This opportunity to intern with Missions of the United Nations is unique among environmental law schools. Taught in conjunction with a similar course at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, this course engages students in legal and scientific research on environmental issues before the United Nations. Students in the 4 credit course (2 academic and 2 experiential credits) will learn the environmental diplomacy process, attend meetings and negotiation sessions at the United Nations and prepare an in-depth research paper on a topic chosen to assist a delegation or member state better deal with environmental issues before the General Assembly or the Commission on Sustainable Development. Students are frequently presented with the opportunity to work hand-in-hand with Ambassadors and Foreign Ministers to develop environmental policy for their nations.
Washington, DC, Environmental Law Externship
The Washington, DC, Environmental Externship has two components: (1) a one-week classroom seminar conducted at Pace; and (2) seven weeks of supervised field work with a mentor attorney in a federal environmental agency, congressional office, public interest environmental organization or other appropriate institution located in the Washington, DC area. The program is supervised by full-time faculty members at Pace, and an adjunct professor in Washington, DC Students maintain work logs and journals, participate in a weekly seminar conducted by the Washington faculty member, and produce a substantial paper. This externship is designed to allow students to gain practical experience in the environmental legal arena with special emphasis on the type of legal work conducted in Washington, DC but in a controlled learning situation which enriches the students' more traditional academic instruction. Placements may include the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Departments of Justice, Interior, Energy and Agriculture; the Council on Environmental Quality, committees and subcommittees of Congress with environmental and land use responsibilities; and environmental public interest organizations such as the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Environmental Defense Fund, and the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund, the National Wildlife Federation and the National Audubon Society. Permission of the professor, based upon application and interview, is required.
New York Environmental Law Externship
Students spend twelve hours a week prosecuting environmental law violations in various environmental law enforcement agencies, including the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, the Environmental Crimes Unit of the Westchester County District Attorney, the federal Environmental Protection Agency, and the environmental justice project of the Center for Constitutional Rights. Student work and the practice experience are further reviewed in a weekly seminar session with the faculty supervisor. The seminar also compares the approach to legal issues and environmental problems of government lawyers and "public interest" lawyers and systematically analyzes topics such as the authority of the courts, the scope of judicial review, the relationship between administrative agency records and litigation, available remedies, and state-federal relations, as they arise within the framework of the clinical experience. Permission of the instructor is required.
Environmental Law Externships and Studying Abroad
Pace Law School students have the opportunity to work with a law firm, tribunal or nongovernmental organization outside the US. Offered through Pace Law School's international law programs, these externships allow students to gain expertise in the legal language and civil law of that country or court. Pace externs have practiced for an eight week period in countries such as Argentina, Australia, Austria, Brazil, China, Croatia, France, Hungary, India, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Lebanon, Portugal, Spain, Germany, Greece, Russia, Sierra Leone, and Slovakia.
The International Environmental Moot Court – work with fellow Pace Law students on our annual International Environmental Law Moot Court team. Additional opportunities to work on moot court, appellate advocacy, or mock trial teams abound.
Each spring semester, Pace offers students from our own community and from other ABA-approved law schools the opportunity to spend time working and studying abroad through the Pace London Law Program (PLLP). Tour the Inns of the Court, Parliament, and other legal institutions in the vibrant, historical city of London on an ABA-approved spring semester abroad. Courses are held on the University College London (UCL), Faculty of Laws campus in the historic neighborhood of Bloomsbury. In London, you may moot at the medieval Gray’s Inn against barristers-in-training, take advantage of long weekends to travel around the U.K. and Europe on the new and prolific budget airlines, receive a Certificate of International Law, and participate in an optional three-week internship with a barrister or a solicitor.
Please note this is a Pace Law School program hosted on the campus of UCL, and is not a UCL, Faculty of Laws program. PLLP students are not intergrated into classes on offer at UCL but instead take courses with their colleagues on the PLLP study abroad program exclusively. Opportunities are provided to meet UCL students socially at a joint reception and through touring programs.