environmental law - what school?

[law lady]

I have done my own research but I am hoping to receive feedback from current students/alum! What school would you suggest for environmental law?

I have been accepted at Uottawa, Lakehead, TRU, and Queens, and am waiting to hear from Calgary and Sask. I am hoping to practice environmental and natural resource law upon graduation. I have already heard some great things about environmental law at Uottawa, Calgary, TRU, and Lakehead in particular. I am leaning towards Lakehead or Uottawa, but I also know some people suggest against going to Lakehead and TRU for various reasons. 

Any input or pros and cons would be extremely helpful as I try and make a decision before April 1st! I hope to hear from Calgary and Sask soon.

Thanks!

Edited March 10, 2022 by law lady

[mjslava]

Which province would you rather live/work in?

[MiceInRice]

Go to the school in the province you wish to live in. That makes your decision easy if you aren't leaning towards Ontario.

If you want Ontario, only go to Lakehead if you wish to work in Northern Ontario. There is no other advantage over Queen's or Ottawa. And honestly I can't imagine environmental law making up much of a northern lawyer's practice.

Queen's has one (maybe two?) environmental law type courses available each year for upper year students. There really isn't anything else for that here. Both Queen's and Ottawa would provide you with lots of options should you change your mind or be unsuccessful in pursuing enviro. law. If Ottawa has a good amount of enviro. courses and that is something you really want to explore, I would go there over Queen's. And that's coming from someone who really likes going to Queen's.

Congrats on getting into multiple law schools!

[law lady]

16 hours ago, MiceInRice said:

Go to the school in the province you wish to live in. That makes your decision easy if you aren't leaning towards Ontario.

Thanks for the great feedback! I appreciate the thought put into your answer.

I guess the answer to your question is where my problem really lies. I would like to eventually practice in Alberta or BC. I did my undergrad in Nova Scotia and after my Law degree would love to return home with my family. This does complicate things as I have not been accepted to a school in Alberta and am not too gung ho about TRU in comparison to the Ontario schools I have been accepted to.

Based on your advice I am going to look into schools where people have found success taking the bar in a different province afterwards. If that is an unrealistic dream of mine, then I will also research the cities of Ottawa, Kingston, and Thunder Bay and figure out where I would be okay with living and working during and after school. Thanks!!

[ZukoJD]

Ottawa has the environmental law legal clinic with Ecojustice as well as summer student positions with Ecojustice which are reserved for uOttawa students. There is a decent selection of environmental law courses offered here. A bonus is that Stewart Elgie teaches first years and he is a pioneer in the field in Canada. 

If you're considering environmental law I would recommend that you not think too restrictively about it. Working for places like Ecojustice is great, but these positions are incredibly competitive and are far and few in between. There are other avenues you can pursue which would allow you to have some positive environmental impact, particularly with government be it at the federal or municipal level. 

I'll also plug in here that Ottawa has what's called "student proposed internships" which can be quite useful for students looking to break into government or NGOs. You can do an unpaid (or in some instances paid) internship for course credit and get your foot in the door with the organization. I have heard from upper years that this is how they broke into an NGO like Ecojustice. 

I can't comment on the other schools because I don't know enough about them, but I think you'd be fairly well placed if you attended uOttawa.

 

 

 

 

[law lady]

1 hour ago, ZukoJD said:

Ottawa has the environmental law legal clinic with Ecojustice as well as summer student positions with Ecojustice which are reserved for uOttawa students. There is a decent selection of environmental law courses offered here. A bonus is that Stewart Elgie teaches first years and he is a pioneer in the field in Canada.

Thank you for your answer. This was extremely helpful and exactly the kind of insider information I was searching for when I asked!!

[goodisgood]

Leapfrogging off Zuko's point about not being too restrictive about it, Uottawa also offers a Toxic Torts class, the environmental law specialization, and has a growing Environmental Law Students' Association.