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  3. Environmental and Energy Law Concentration

Environmental and Energy Law Concentration

Environmental and Energy law is a challenging, dynamic, and varied legal practice. Attorneys who work in this field need to master and employ a rich array of laws relating to the use, development, sale, and protection of land and natural resources. Environmental and Energy law attorneys may advise clients about the environmental and natural resource aspects of business transactions, they may interpret laws and regulations that govern a given field or activity, they may strategize about litigation tactics, and/or they may participate in development of policy. And often, attorneys in this field engage in all of these activities to serve their client’s or employer’s needs.

Pitt Law offers students who wish to explore the field of Environmental and Energy law a flexible concentration with courses in the skills necessary for success in the field. And students have the opportunity to study the key laws and regulations that they will apply in their future legal practice.  Students can choose to take courses in any – or all – of the following substantive areas of law: pollution control, energy, oil and gas (including the law of shale plays), electrical utilities, land and natural resource use and conservation, renewable energy, and climate change. 

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 of environmental and energy law and will acquire the ability to apply subject-matter expertise in 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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