October 03, 2021
Back

To challenge elite law firms on climate complicity, target their staffing pipeline - The Boston Globe

Melvin Center expressed frustration with a mandatory evacuation order he planned to ignore as law enforcement asked residents to leave the area as the Dixie Fire approached the community of Chester, Calif., on Aug. 3.
Melvin Center expressed frustration with a mandatory evacuation order he planned to ignore as law enforcement asked residents to leave the area as the Dixie Fire approached the community of Chester, Calif., on Aug. 3.

In response to “Big Law is complicit in the climate crisis” (Ideas, Sept. 26), by Aaron Regunberg, some would counter that there is indeed a sacred principle that everyone is entitled to a lawyer. Then again, not everyone is entitled to be represented by the major law firms. And, in practice, major law firms generally operate so that everyone who can pay their bills and support the high incomes of their partners gets a lawyer.

I disagree, however, with some of Regunberg’s proposed solutions to what he sees as the problem of elite law firms contributing to our climate crisis. Representing an oil company within the bounds of legal ethics should not be equated with the questionable and dubious actions of the lawyers for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. Disrupting the recruitment efforts of major law firms, as Regunberg advocates, is not an appropriate response. Rather, what should happen is that law students at Harvard and other elite schools should simply stop seeking jobs at the major firms and instead should help to fill the ranks of the government agencies and public interest groups that are on the right side of the climate change issue.

When I was a manager at the Environmental Protection Agency, we received many applications from law students at less elite law schools, but virtually none from students at Harvard Law. Perhaps Regunberg should be encouraging his fellow students to make different choices and to devote more of their careers to legally fighting climate change.



source: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/10/03/opinion/challenge-elite-law-firms-climate-complicity-target-their-staffing-pipeline/

Your content is great. However, if any of the content contained herein violates any rights of yours, including those of copyright, please contact us immediately by e-mail at media[@]kissrpr.com.