Environmental Law

The Ideal Setting to Pursue Environmental Law 

The urgency of climate change, rising sea levels, and pollution have placed the role of law and lawyers front and center in the struggle to protect our planet. As an environmental lawyer, you can work on legislating for environmental protection to representing cases relating to contaminated spaces and endangered species protection to reconciling the challenges between land development and water use and conservation.

Miami Law offers an extensive environmental law curriculum, an Environmental Law Program, and an Environmental Law Concentration next to the largest subtropical wetland ecosystem in North America. Our interdisciplinary offerings with the Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science and the Leonard and Jayne Abess Center for Ecosystem Science and Policy bridge the gap between science and the law. Whether your goal is to work in a law firm, as in-house counsel, in a government setting, or at a non-profit organization, nationally or globally, Miami Law will prepare you to be a leader in environmental law.

Read news stories about environmental law at Miami Law

Cards

Leader

We were listed as a "leader in environmental law" in Pre-Law Magazine spring 2024 edition. Plus you have access to UM’s Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science, a 65-acre marine research and education park that is a world-leader in oceanic and atmospheric research and teaching.

Top School Thumbnail

$1MM

$1 Million was award to Miami Law in 2022 to support Environmental Law programming, some of which includes Miami Law students attending United Nations International climate change conferences.

South Florida

One of the most unique ecosystems in the world, we have the 3rd largest U.S. national park, and the largest mangrove ecosystem in Western Hemisphere - the Florida Everglades National Park, about 30 minutes from campus, and the only living tropical reef in the continental U.S.

Courses*

*Course list is not exhaustive and does not set out a path of study.

  • Administrative Law
  • Admiralty Law
  • Affordable Housing
  • Animal Law
  • Business and Human Rights
  • Climate Change
  • Climate Change and Human Rights
  • Climate Change Law and Policy
  • Climate Finance
  • Coastal Law 
  • Community Equity Innovation and Resource Lab
  • Companion Animals and the Law
  • Conservation, Tourism, and Development
  • Construction Law
  • Disaster Law
  • Emerging Forms of Philanthropy and the Role of Private Foundations in Effecting Social Change
  • Energy Law
  • Energy Regulation in an Age of Transition
  • Environmental Appellate Advocacy
  • Administrative Law
  • Admiralty Law
  • Affordable Housing
  • Animal Law
  • Business and Human Rights
  • Climate Change
  • Climate Change and Human Rights
  • Climate Change Law and Policy
  • Climate Finance
  • Coastal Law 
  • Community Equity Innovation and Resource Lab
  • Companion Animals and the Law
  • Conservation, Tourism, and Development
  • Construction Law
  • Disaster Law
  • Emerging Forms of Philanthropy and the Role of Private Foundations in Effecting Social Change
  • Energy Law
  • Energy Regulation in an Age of Transition
  • Environmental Appellate Advocacy
  • Environmental Law
  • Environmental Legal Research
  • Environmental Planning and the Environmental Impact Statement 
  • Environmental Regulation of Real Property
  • Everglades Law and Policy
  • Evolution of Product Liability
  • Fisheries and Wildlife: Law & Policy
  • Florida Topics in Environmental Law & Policy
  • Florida Tort Law
  • Food, Animals, and Environmental Policy
  • International Climate Negotiations
  • International Environmental Law
  • Large Scale Litigation
  • Law of Green Buildings
  • Law of International Treaties
  • Law of the Sea
  • Legal Environment of the Cruise Industry
  • Legal Protection of the Ocean and Its Biodiversity
  • Legislation
  • Marine Ecology and the Law 
  • Natural Resources
  • Non-Profit Organizations and Social Enterprises
  • Planning and Zoning
  • Pro Bono / Public Interest Law Ethics
  • Protection of Living Marine Resources
  • Public Interest Law Seminar
  • Public Interest Litigation in Private Practice
  • Real Property and Government
  • Regulatory Compliance, Corporate Governance, and Sustainability
  • Researching the Administrative State
  • Rights of Nature
  • Scientific Evidence
  • Social Justice Engagement
  • Social Justice Lawyering
  • Space Law
  • State and Local Government
  • Statistics for Lawyers
  • The Freedom of Information Act
  • Toxic Torts & Toxic Regulation
  • Treaty Interpretation
  • UN Climate Negotiations
  • Urbanization, Capitalism, and Development
  • Water Resources Policy
  • Wetlands Regulation and Real Property

 

Academic Programs and Concentrations

Clinics and Practicums

Joint Degrees

International Opportunities

Externships and Internships

Open All Tabs
  • Hands-On Learning Opportunities

    **List is not exhaustive and is intended to provide examples of past externships and internships.

    • American Bar Association, Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources
    • Audubon Florida
    • Billfish Foundation
    • Centurion Law Group, Oil and Gas Divsion (Malabo, Equatorial New Guinea)
    • City of Miami Beach, City Attorney’s Office
    • Community, Engagement, Environmental Justice, & Health Laboratory, University of Maryland School of Public Health (College Park, MD)
    • EarthJustice (Puerto Rico/US Office)
    • Economic and Environmental Crimes Unit, United States Attorney’s Office
    • Environmental Defense Fund
    • Environmental Protection Agency’s Air Enforcement Division (Washington, DC) 
    • Environmental Protection Agency’s Region IV Office (Atlanta, GA)
    • Everglades Law Center 
    • Florida Sea Grant 
    • House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis (Washington, DC) 
    • Humane Society of the United States (New York NY)
    • Louisiana Sea Grant Law and Policy Program
    • Marine Highway Program
    • Miami Waterkeeper
    • Miami-Dade Office of Resilience
    • Monterey Waterkeeper (Seaside, CA)
    • National Aeronautics and Space Administration-NASA
    • National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration-NOAA , Office of General Counsel
    • National Parks Conservation Association  Núñez Muñoz Abogados - Mining Environmental law division (Santiago, Chile)
    • Oceana 
    • People's Economic & Environmental Resiliency Group-PEER
    • Smith, Currie & Hancock, Environmental Law Practice
    • U.S. Coast Guard (Seattle, WA)
    • U.S. Department of Justice, Environmental Crimes Section (Washington, DC) 
    • U.S. Department of Justice, Environmental Enforcement Section (Washington, DC) 
    • U.S. Department of Justice, Environment and Natural Resource Division (Washington, DC)
    • U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Aviation, Space & Admiralty Litigation
    • U.S. Department of Transportation, Maritime Administration (Washington, DC) 
    • U.S. Environmental Protection Agency-EPA (Washington, DC and San Francisco, CA)
    • U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Washington, DC) 
    • Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy (New Haven, CT)

Faculty

Open All Tabs
  • Meet Our Faculty Experts

    • Tony Alfieri is an expert in poverty, the environment and environmental equity and justice and incubated the law school’s Environmental Justice Project.
    • Caroline Bradley is an expert in European community law, British and European financial law, and U.S. security regulations and teaches a course on Climate Finance.
    • Xavier Cortada is a lawyer and artist who focuses on art and the law and climate migration.
    • Tamar Ezer is Faculty Director of the Human Rights Program and works on climate change impacts on indigenous women.
    • Abigail Leigh Fleming is the Fredman Foundation Environmental Justice Clinic, Practitioner-in-Residence and Lecturer in Law.
    • Jessica Owley is an internationally recognized expert scholar in environmental law, Professor Owley directed the Environmental Law Program at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo. She has served as an OECD Fellow while a Visiting Professor at the Universidad Pontificia – Comillas (ICADE) in Madrid, Spain. She is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Law, Property, and Society, is one of the founding members and the current President of the Environmental Law Collaborative, and is a member of the IUCN’s World Commission on Environmental Law and the World Commission of Protected Areas.
    • Abigail Fleming is the Associate Director at the University of Miami School of Law Environmental Justice Clinic.
    • Bernard Oxman is one of the world's top experts on the laws of the sea and currently sits on the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea.
    • Ileana Porras is Senior Lecturer and teaches Public International Law, Climate Change Law & Policy, and Property Law.
    • Doug Ruley is the Director of the Environmental Justice Clinic at the University of Miami School of Law. He has litigated environmental cases for many years, including as a staff attorney with Earthjustice in Alaska, as managing attorney for the Asheville office of the Southern Environmental Law Center, and as Chief Counsel of ClientEarth.
    • Daniel Suman's research focuses on coastal management in Latin America, planning and enforcement in Marine Protected Areas, and public participation in environmental planning.
    • Marcia Narine Weldon is an expert in corporate governance, sustainability, employment law, regulatory compliance, corporate social responsibility, and the intersection of business and human rights.

Top