Building Power in the Environmental Movement

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Building Power in the Environmental Movement

By Bethany A. Davis Noll and Richard L. Revesz

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Bethany A. Davis Noll and Richard L. Revesz write a guest blog post on a series of events the New York City Bar’s Environmental Law Committee and Green 2.0 partnered on this year to highlight diversity and racial equity in the environmental law field.

The environmental law field has been slow to diversify and there is widespread agreement that diversity is critical to providing high quality work that has a deep and lasting impact. So this winter and spring, in partnership with Green 2.0 and the New York City Bar’s Environmental Law Committee, we set about to explore the best strategies for proactively addressing the disparity.

There are many different strands to this issue: What are firms, NGOs, and public employers doing to improve their recruiting and retention practices? Can young lawyers of color see themselves in the field and find mentors? And is this a field that promotes equity? Among many others.

To address these issues, we planned three events with our partners. First, we focused on what different organizations are doing. At that event, Congresswoman Yvette Clarke (NY-09) helped launch the series by highlighting the importance of bringing “to the fore all of our experts reflective of [diverse] lived experiences” in this work. Attorneys from Beveridge & Diamond, PC and Earthjustice both described the systems they have put in place to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices within their firms – laying out techniques and steps that can and should be replicated elsewhere.  Green 2.0 presented its latest report card, showing some progress but also significant room for improvement from environmental organizations and foundations.

At our second panel, we heard from five incredibly inspiring BIPOC lawyers who spoke about their career paths and the varied experiences available in the environmental law profession. With our third panel, we focused on the equity provisions in New York’s new and ground breaking Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act. Equity and environmental justice concerns are central to many environmental matters and thus to a career in environmental law. And the equity provisions in New York’s new Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act provide an excellent example of the implementation challenges and opportunities of this type of statute.

Systems, people, and substance: each demands a focus in efforts to promote DEI in this field. There are many challenges still. Systemic change is needed. Bias must be confronted and addressed. Working in collaboration with our partners and shining a light on work that is being done on these issues, we are hopeful that we can encourage firms to redouble efforts and other firms to start their efforts. DEI is one of the six priorities announced by the New York City Bar Association President Sheila Boston at the start of her tenure last year, and these panels represented one prong of the Environmental Law Committee’s efforts to bring the issues to the forefront of our work. We also take these issues seriously at the centers that we run and commit to a continuing focus on them. All the while, Green 2.0 is keeping the field accountable and bringing attention to this important work.

Bethany A. Davis Noll is Executive Director of the State Energy & Environmental Impact Center at NYU School of Law and co-chair of the Environmental Law Committee at the NYC Bar Association.

Richard L. Revesz is the AnBryce Professor of Law and Dean Emeritus at the New York University School of Law, where he directs the Institute for Policy Integrity.