Environmental Advocacy Clinic
Participants of the "Niagara River Corridor Ramsar Bingo" posing in frnot of Niagara Falls. The bingo was created by clinic students to help spread the identification of native and invasive plants present in the corridor.
The University at Buffalo School of Law’s Environmental Advocacy Clinic addresses local, state, national, and global environmental issues, with student lawyers taking lead roles alongside clients and experts on impactful matters.
In the Environmental Advocacy Clinic, student attorneys take the lead on cutting-edge environmental law and policy matters—locally in Western New York and across the state, nation, and world. The work can be fast-paced, meaningful, and sometimes groundbreaking. Under Professor Connolly’s supervision, students collaborate directly with clients, communities, and key stakeholders, gaining hands-on experience tackling urgent environmental challenges with real impact. This clinic earns four-credit hours (for returning students, a different credit hour allocation can be requested).
Kim Diana Connolly
Director of Environmental Advocacy Clinic
Clinical Legal Education
Student attorneys during a weekly group class.
Student Engagement
Student attorneys are exposed to many aspects of legal practice, from intake to closing matters, from interviewing to counseling to appearing in front of a court or other setting, etc. from digging down into details of corporate law and preparing documents for submission to state and federal agencies, and from assessing the many levels of laws that touch on animal issues.
In addition to pure service, student attorneys choose particular goals upon which to personally focus, and engage in deep reflection on the process of becoming a lawyer throughout the semester. Student attorneys will leave the clinic with experience in applied research, client interviewing and counseling, advocacy, fact investigation, drafting, teamwork, interdisciplinary coordination, and other profession-ready skills.
There are weekly group classes on campus, some involving all clinic students in the clinical program. There are also separate team meetings (scheduled around other student attorney obligations) with the professor to address current client matters, devoted to instruction in substantive law and important legal skills, as well as project reviews, strategy making, problem resolution, and work assignments. Student attorneys often schedule additional working meetings with colleagues on their own throughout the semester. Active participation in these meetings, and in occasional client and stakeholder meetings that may take place off-site during the day and in the evening, is expected of each student enrolled in the Clinic.