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Environmental and Energy Law Area of Concentration

The law around the development, sale, use and preservation of natural resources is the practice framework for energy and environmental lawyers. Pitt Law offers a flexible concentration that allows students to pursue transactional, regulatory, litigation, or policy-based courses in the area of energy & environmental law. Students pursuing this concentration may explore the law of shale plays, utility law, international commercial transactions, pollution control laws, conservation statutes, renewable energy incentives, and climate law and policy.

Energy and environmental law is often practiced in or through interactions with administrative agencies and tribunals. The Concentration exposes students to administrative decisionmaking, statutory interpretation, rulemaking and adjudication, and judicial review of agency decisions.

Students may pursue this concentration by taking foundational courses in environmental or energy law, 5-6 credits of electives, and 4-6 skills-based credits. 

By completing these courses, it is expected that students enrolled in the concentration will learn and understand the substantive and procedural law in the area of environmental and energy law and will acquire the ability to apply subject-matter expertise in the area of environmental and energy law in experiential settings (e.g., clinics and externships or through classroom simulations) that will benefit them as they enter a career in the environmental or energy field or in another field in which knowledge of environmental or energy law is important.

Please note that this program may require that you complete an internship, externship, or other field work at a facility or facilities external to the University and that such facility or facilities may require a criminal background check, an Act 33/34 clearance (if applicable), and perhaps a drug screen to determine whether you are qualified to participate.

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