Environmental professionals and the law
Excerpt
AS a lawyer, I find that many environ mental professionals are not comfortable with lawyers. Among the reasons for this discomfort are personality style, a poor understanding of how lawyers function, and some problems with communication. This article addresses the position and roles of lawyers within the profession of environmental management; the ways in which other professionals can work with, or against, them; and problems of perspective and language that occur during professional encounters.
Lawyers and the environment
The general public is most familiar with the environmental attorney as crusader-the Ralph Nader image. Citizen groups and nonprofit law firms employ these lawyers to bring environmental actions under the National Environmental Policy Act or the Clean Water Act or a state wetlands law. Litigation of this sort gets a lot of publicity and is of prime importance to the enforcement of environmental laws, because it represents that credible threat without which effective political action is impossible.
People who work for or with government agencies …
Footnotes
Alexandra D. D Dawson is an environmental attorney and Director of the Resource Management Program, Antioch New England Graduate School, Keene, NH 03431.
- Copyright 1993 by the Soil and Water Conservation Society
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