Schools for good energy and climate Law. Forum

[Baharvb]

I am working for the State’s Energy and Environmental department. I want to get a JD in energy and climate Law. I want work in the energy utility, energy efficiency and climate field after graduation.
What schools I need to consider.

[Lord Randolph McDuff]

If you have a job lined up for after graduation, my advice is go somewhere you'll enjoy without breaking the bank.

Do you care more about what professors you will study under or which school will be best for the type of career you want?

[sinfiery]

Yale, maybe Harvard or Stanford too.

[hephaestus]

No school is going to be particularly well suited for any individual area of law. The same rules apply to you as to everyone else generally: get T14 caliber numbers. This will then allow you to go to a T14 (preferably with $$$), or a regional school for close to free.

[worldtraveler]

Berkeley has a JD/MA in energy resource management or something like that. 4 years or more in school is a long time though.

[Redamon1]

Yes, Berkeley's offering in those areas is first rate. The law school has many relevant classes. You can also join classes outside the law school and interdisciplinary groups like the Energy and Resources Group, and the Berkeley Energy and Resources Collaborative.

[mr. wednesday]

I am working for the State’s Energy and Environmental department. I want to get a JD in energy and climate Law. I want work in the energy utility, energy efficiency and climate field after graduation.
What schools I need to consider.

Something to keep in mind is that there is no JD in anything but law, so a JD in energy and climate law doesn't exist anywhere. You will probably take 2-3 classes on that subject your entire three years, and that's only if you seek them out.

Also, when you say you want to work in "energy utility, energy efficiency and climate," what do you envision yourself doing? Working for a utility or energy company? You will likely be doing generic contracts and administrative law. Working for a non-profit? There are probably only 10-15 jobs of that sort for new grads in the entire country from all law schools, if that, and a lot of the lobbying type work could be done without a JD.

If you want to go back to your current job, are they definitely going to hire you? How do you think becoming an attorney will change what you do now, and can you spend a day shadowing a current attorney to get a realistic view of what they are doing and whether it's enough better than your job to make the cost and time and energy of law school worth it?

People with really specific areas that they want to go into after law school can end up disappointed when those jobs don't exist to a meaningful degree or aren't what they thought they'd be like, especially if you haven't done a ton of research. Your question about a JD in energy/climate law suggests maybe you aren't familiar with how JDs work, how the legal market is, and what it might be like for you if you decide to take that step. "Should I go to law school at all?" should be the number one question to research and answer before you worry about which schools.

[jk148706]

Yale
Harvard
Stanford
Columbia
Chicago
NYU
Virginia

Just a few

[Cicero76]

Schools for good energy and climate Law

Yale
Harvard
Stanford
Columbia
Chicago
NYU
Virginia

Just a fewmaybe these ones

Fixed it for you.

I don't know what "schools for good energy" means (schools sponsored by Red Bull?), but if you want to practice "environmental law" then you may as well go try to catch a unicorn, because even at HYS you're more likely to end up as a lawyer defending BP than a lawyer fighting to save the Amazon Rainforest.

EDIT: Of course this is all moot if you already have a job at your state agency and just want to return there after getting a JD. If they're holding a position for you, then just go wherever the hell they tell you to.

[A. Nony Mouse]

I actually don't think environmental/energy/climate law is nearly as much of a unicorn as a lot of people here do. If that means purely save the rainforest, yeah, it's probably tough. But especially in natural resource-rich parts of the US, there's a lot more to energy/climate/environmental stuff than that, in big firms.

(Not saying I disagree with the advice about schools, just that environmental law, defined broadly, is more of a thing than, say, the unicorn of international human rights law.)

[jordan15]

Most schools will allow you to take some classes outside of the law school for credit towards your JD. So maybe you should look into UG offerings as well as clubs or clinics that you can take part in.

[A. Nony Mouse]

Don't most schools require that courses you take outside of the law school be graduate courses?

[BeautifulSW]

Wherever you go, take admin law. That's what most energy/environmental/climate law is.

[Cicero76]

Don't most schools require that courses you take outside of the law school be graduate courses?

I know you can take UG language courses here, but I dunno about other courses.

[worldtraveler]

Don't most schools require that courses you take outside of the law school be graduate courses?

I know you can take UG language courses here, but I dunno about other courses.

It's almost always undergrad language, graduate anything else.

And speaking as someone who did a joint degree, it is really, really difficult to get multiple campus departments to cooperate and to have responsibilities and interests all over the place. It drove me crazy.