Developing Professional Skills: Environmental Law

Using Developing Professional Skills: Environmental Law as a supplement to your regular casebook makes it easy to integrate skills training into the classroom. The book contains nine exercises designed to develop skills in drafting, client interviewing and counseling, negotiation, and advocacy, in addition to providing an opportunity for students to hone legal research and analytical skills. Many of the exercises are intended to help students understand regulations and to effectively represent their clients in the administrative law context. Students spend a manageable two to three hours on tasks including: interviewing a client; e-mail correspondence; drafting comments in response to a notice of proposed rulemaking; drafting and responding to a citizen suit complaint or a petition for review of administrative action; preparing an outline of key arguments supporting a motion to dismiss; drafting a response to a motion for a preliminary injunction; and negotiating with a regulator. Each chapter prompts students to grapple with ethical issues and to apply the Model Rules of Professional Conduct as well.

A comprehensive Teacher's Manual provides guidance and suggestions for resolving the legal issues posed by the problems and for expanding the classroom discussion to include professional responsibility concepts and the norms of modern legal practice.

Developing Professional Skills: Environmental Law can be used as a supplement for Natural Resources courses as well as Environmental Law courses. Two of the chapters are directly relevant to substantive topics often taught in Natural Resources courses: Chapter 2 (The Endangered Species Act) and Chapter 3 (NEPA). Two other chapters cover topics and procedures that any student or practitioner of Natural Resources Law should know: Chapter 1 (The Federal Register) and Chapter 9 (Toxic Torts, involving contamination from an abandoned gold mine).