Structurally, the project's staff will work with ELSs to organize an experienced group of individuals, at clinics and in practice, who can serve on a task force. Each ELS will work with its own task force. Each task force will work to meet the specific needs of a ELS and its fledgling clinic. Task force members will make commitments that are minor relative to the impact that their combined seasoned wisdom will have on the fledgling clinic with which they are working. To Help ELSs strengthen the environmental law pedagogy at their schools by gathering and disseminating information at the national level.
Environmental law is one of the fastest growing disciplines in law schools today.
Moreover, a recent study revealed that, while the number of law students enrolled at accredited law schools has increased by 43 percent from 1971 to 1992, the number of environmental course offerings has increased by 138 percent. Likewise, the number of full-time faculty teaching environmental law increased in the same time period by nearly 120 percent. A cursory look at legal environmental curricula reveals dozens of programs across the country, each with new approaches. Northwestern School of Law at Lewis and Clark College provides approximately 35 environmental class options and allows students to design their own research programs. Environmental law centers have been created at the University of Oregon Law School, Vermont Law School, and the University of Colorado School of Law.