The Environmental Law Section is pleased to announce its Diversity & Inclusion Fellowship program for Summer 2020. The program provides law students an opportunity to spend 8 to 10 weeks over the summer practicing environmental, energy, land use, and/or natural resources law at a participating government agency or public interest organization. Each Fellow receives a $6,500 stipend, thanks to the generous contributions from our sponsors. The Section also matches the Fellows with mentors who practice in the field, coordinates gatherings and provides opportunities for the Fellows to meet other Section members, and invites the Fellows to attend the Section’s Environmental Law Conference at Yosemite® in October following the Fellowship with free conference registration.

The Fellowship program is designed to help foster diversity within the Environmental Law Section, which is one of the core principles in the Section’s Mission Statement. The Section strongly encourages applications from law students from diverse or underrepresented backgrounds (including but not limited to diversity arising from the applicant’s sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, color, race, religion, ancestry, national origin, familial status, marital status, mental or physical disability, or genetic information); as well as from students from backgrounds that may have presented obstacles to accessing the legal profession, such as family financial hardship while growing up, being the first in one’s family to go to college, or geographical circumstances such as coming from a rural or inner-city background that limited social interaction with lawyers. The Section will consider such information, as described in the applicant’s personal statement, as part of the selection criteria. Other selection criteria include interest in environmental issues, personal and leadership qualities, and academic record.

Further information about the Diversity & Inclusion Fellowship Program, including how to apply, can be found here and on the Environmental Law Section’s homepage. Please help us spread the word about the program by forwarding this information on to any law students you may know who may be interested in applying. Applications for the Summer 2020 Diversity & Inclusion Fellowship Program are due October 28, 2019.

In addition, the Section is seeking governmental agencies and public interest organizations whose work involves environmental, energy, land use, and/or natural resources law who may be interested in hosting a Fellow over the summer of 2020. If your agency or organization would be interested in learning more about participation in the program, please email the name of the agency or organization, and the name, phone number and email address of a contact person, to Julia Byrd, Section Coordinator, environmental@calawyers.org.