South Royalton –– The pro bono Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic at Vermont Law School and Earthjustice, the largest nonprofit environmental law organization in the nation, have hired a full-time staff attorney and initiated strategic planning to expand their reach in disenfranchised communities.

Attorney Rachel Stevens will lead the environmental justice partnership and a team of student clinicians to advocate for people and communities who have been disproportionately affected by environmental harms, such as exposure to toxic chemicals and drinking water contamination.

“All of our cases will have an environmental justice focus,” Stevens said in a news release. “And rather than waiting for potential clients to contact us, we will contact communities directly. We will engage in outreach to better understand community needs, to develop a deeper sensitivity to those needs, and to empower communities that need legal resources the most.”

Lisa Garcia, Earthjustice vice president of litigation for healthy communities, said she looks forward to working with the Vermont Law School to expand the national organization’s work at the community level.

“The Earthjustice partnership with the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic at (Vermont Law School) will help advance the environmental justice movement with communities throughout Vermont, the Northeast, and potentially other regions of the United States,” she said.

Jill Witkowski Heaps, director of the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic, said that despite advances in environmental protections some communities are left behind. 

“Communities of color and economically disadvantaged communities have not received the benefits and in fact have experienced greater public health and environmental impacts despite the many other gains by the environmental movement. This deep injustice is being exacerbated by the current president and EPA administrator’s attempts to unravel the limited programs we have in place, and by the impacts of global climate disruption,” she said. 

For more information about the partnership, email rstevens@vermontlaw.edu or call 802-831-1073.