Our Partners

In the fall of 1987, Riverkeeper joined with the Pace University School of Law to establish the Pace Environmental Litigation Clinic. The Clinic’s directors and professors, Karl S. Coplan and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., instruct eight to ten second- and third-year law students for a two-semester period on legal issues developed by the Riverkeeper program of environmental investigation and monitoring.

Through a special practice order from the New York State Supreme Court and the federal courts, the clinic students have permission in New York State to act as practicing attorneys. The students represent Riverkeeper in federal and state courts, federal and state administrative proceedings and occasionally in local proceedings. Their efforts have led to precedent-setting decisions by federal courts under both the Clean Water Act and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.

The school teaches law students to use their skills to address areas of public concern, including the impact of human activities on the environment. Through the clinic program, the students gain in-depth professional training in environmental law while having a measurable impact on the management of one of the premier natural resources on the East Coast: the Hudson River-Long Island Sound estuarine system.

Contact information is as follows:
Pace Environmental Litigation Clinic
Pace University School of Law
78 North Broadway
White Plains, NY 10603
914.422.4343
(Fax) 914.422.4437
www.law.pace.edu/envclinic/index.html