Prospective Environmental Law Students

Why Pace?

There are many fine environmental programs around the country, and prospective students often find it hard to decide between them.  What makes Pace different? 

All of the top environmental law programs in the country offer many more environmental law courses than any individual student can take; have great faculty members; and provide practical skills training.  Here is how Pace excels in this field:

Location
Pace is the only top-three environmental law program close to the centers of power in the United States and the world.  Less than an hour away from the heart of New York City and the headquarters for the United Nations, less than two hours away by air from Washington, D.C., Pace provides students with easy access to exciting externships and other work opportunities on a national and international scale.  White  Plains, New York and surrounding Westchester County is a haven from big-city life, with livable, walkable, low-crime neighborhoods and excellent schools and cultural opportunities; law students who revel in big-city life can easily commute to Pace.

Faculty
Pace’s faculty provide national and international leadership in environmental law.  Faculty members have led environmental law practices and programs within the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of Justice, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, and other state and local governments; practiced environmental law in international law firms and major  national and local firms; written laws for Congress and state legislatures, and drafted international treaties; led the global environmental law programs of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature & Natural Resources (IUCN) and the U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP); and led non-profit organizations.  As a school, we follow Rene Dubos’ maxim to “think globally and act locally,” and we engage each of our students in these endeavors.

Cutting-edge programs
Pace was the first, and is still the only, law school in the U.S. to offer the S.J.D. (Doctor of Juridical Sciences) degree in environmental law, a Ph.D.-level degree.  We created the first LL.M. degrees to specialize in the important fields of Climate Change and Land Use and Sustainable Development.  Our professors developed a unique J.D. Legal Skills course that teaches the Clean Water Act through practical exercises.  We continuously develop our growing curriculum to incorporate the most important issues that environmental lawyers are facing today and will face in the future.

Practice opportunities
Would you like to be an environmental advocate, government lawyer, mediator, international problem-solver – or just a well-trained environmental practitioner?  At Pace Law School you can litigate active cases for the Hudson Riverkeeper and other environmental groups in our Environmental Litigation Clinic, advise governments on energy efficiency reforms with the Pace Energy and Climate Center, train local zoning and development officials in sound land use practices and dispute resolution through the Land Use Law Center and the Kheel Center for the Resolution of Environmental Interest Disputes, serve in federal agencies in Washington, D.C., or in government agencies in Connecticut, New York or New Jersey through our Pace Environmental Externship programs, and be a part of international negotiations with the Pace Environmental Diplomacy  Externship at the United Nations. Our comparative environmental law studies can take you abroad to Brazil, the United Kingdom and European Union, and China.  As these experiential learning opportunities suggest, Pace’s academic programs provide a solid foundation for a wide range of practice areas in environmental law.

Scholarship
Are you a teacher, environmental program manager or policymaker at heart?  Allied with Pace University’s broad-ranging research facilities, the multidisciplinary Pace Academy for Applied Environmental Studies, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, and our highly-regarded academic institution partners, Pace students can go deeper and wider in research and scholarship.  You can pursue your scholarly interests as an editor of the Pace Environmental Law Review, a model for peer-reviewed environmental law journals internationally. If you want deeper scientific underpinnings, Pace Law School and the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Sciences offer a joint degree, J.D. and Masters of Environmental Management. Those who want to make or influence environmental policy can take the J.D. and Masters of Science in Environmental Policy with Bard College’s Center for Environmental Policy.  Pace offers a Masters of Laws in Environmental Law (LL.M.), with an option for Pace J.D. students to take the LL.M. in half the time; and students who want to make a mark on current scholarly thinking in environmental law and policy can pursue the research doctorate in environmental law (Doctor of Juridical Science, S.J.D.). A number of Pace graduates are at work teaching law at universities abroad and in the United States.

Walking the talk
Pace environmental law students are active in school governance and in leading their peers.  Our students developed a campus Sustainability Policy and are engaged in implementing it across the university.  The law school has accepted the American Bar Association/U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s "climate challenge," and solar panels and energy efficiency retrofits are being installed on E-House, which houses our Energy & Climate Center and Environmental Litigation Clinic.  On our first application for LEED certification this year, Pace University received a “Bronze” rating and we are already started on initiatives to raise the level higher.  Pace’s Environmental Law Society, Real Estate and Land Use Law Society, National Environmental Law Moot Court Competition, and Student Animal Legal Defense Fund provide programs, activities and social opportunities throughout the academic year.

See for yourself
Pace offers a dynamic environmental law program with abundant opportunities to advance your career goals both in law school and after graduation.  We welcome you to visit our campus, sit in on a course or two, and see how inspiring a world-class environmental law program can be.