Members of the Bar Association of San Francisco’s (BASF) Environmental Law Section shared their experiences as environmental attorneys with close to 100 law students from the University of California Berkeley School of Law and the University of San Francisco School of Law as a part of the Environmental Section’s third annual Environmental Attorney program.
The Environmental Law Section’s Diversity and Pipeline Committee hosted the event at the two law schools in November. The goal of the Environmental Attorney program is to educate law students on the wide variety of work that falls under the banner of “environmental law,” giving students the opportunity to ask questions about the practice area in a small group setting. It also seeks to promote the practice area among minority law students.
Describing the event, Jon-Erik Magnus, a shareholder at Rogers Joseph O’Donnell, and the Environmental Section’s secretary and chairperson of the Diversity and Pipeline Committee, shared, “I and the other panelists appreciate the opportunity to describe a practice area that many law students are unfamiliar with. This next generation of law students was engaged and asked wonderful questions, which is very rewarding.”
BASF and the Environmental Section would like to thank the Environmental Section panelists who volunteered their time to participate in this program: John Epperson of Buchalter, Linda Sobczynski of Farell Braun + Martel, Hina Gupta of Burke, Williams & Sorensen, Sean Herman of Hanson Bridgett, Julia Graeser Mata of Barg Coffin Lewis & Trapp, and Tessa Opalach of WilmerHale, as well as “special guests” Elisa Rivas of Buchalter, Jean Fung of the State Water Boards and Penn Scoble of the State Water Boards.
Additional thanks are in order for the Bay Area law firms that provided lunch for the program:
Finally, the program was not possible without the help of the law schools, particularly Elizabeth Klein at the University of California Berkeley School of Law and Peggy Song at the University of San Francisco School of Law.
If you, your firm or your law school would like to be included in the program for 2025, please contact Jon-Erik Magnus.