The Nature Conservancy, a global environmental non-profit organization, partnered with the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law’s Environmental Advocacy Center (EAC) at the Bluhm Legal Clinic last semester to pursue an ambitious research project to explore potential opportunities on the Front Range of Colorado to increase funding for the implementation of Colorado’s Water Plan.
Collaborations and partnerships with prominent organizations such as The Nature Conservancy are routinely facilitated by the Institute of Sustainability and Energy at Northwestern (ISEN), which works to build connections with partners throughout the university to provide opportunities and resources. Past projects offered through the EAC program and ISEN have included partnerships with global conservation organizations like the World Wildlife Fund, but this particular project was a first-time collaboration between the EAC and The Nature Conservancy.
Why Colorado?
In 2015, the state of Colorado created a water plan, focusing on future water needs, recreation, tourism and agriculture. With a price tag of $20 billion, the state and partners have identified nearly $17.5 billion to fund many elements of the plan. Unfortunately, many of the conservation elements of the plan remain underfunded.
To address this issue, The Nature Conservancy is working with a broad coalition to find solutions to increase funding, including potential opportunities at the local or regional level.
According to Eleanor Morris, Senior Policy Advisor at the Nature Conservancy, the topic of water is a huge issue, especially for a lot of areas in the West and Midwest that often experience phenomena such as droughts and flooding. Therefore, a top priority of the Conservancy has been focusing on water management and water use across the United States.
A Promising Partnership: The Environmental Advocacy Center and The Nature Conservancy
Though one of the Conservancy’s many strengths lies within the extensive network of relationships with elected officials, decisionmakers, and agency officials, Morris states that, “one of our weaknesses is that we need to shore up our policy development and research capacity. So, partnering with an organization like Northwestern University and engaging with students was a great way to help us fill that gap because we don’t have that expertise to dig into different legal analysis or to understand what policy options might be.”
In the EAC course, law students participate directly on cases while learning to assess environmental issues in a weekly seminar and develop strategies revolving around litigation, administrative proceedings, legislative and rule-making proceedings, advocacy, and media from faculty members.
Through the course, Emily Morgan, a 2020 Juris Doctor (JD) Candidate at the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, provided legal assistance through her research in partnership with The Nature Conservancy to supplement the coalition’s project. Morgan’s research centered around legal and administrative processes as well as evaluating existing limits in creating new water districts in Colorado, which are political subdivisions that are assigned specific duties such as water delivery and disposal.
“My research [for the Conservancy] was trying to look into local government entities and how water distribution works now. I also researched how funds are currently obtained and if we can find a way to use existing mechanisms to fund conservation measures,” says Morgan.
“Emily’s research really helped ground truth for us—what it takes to create a special district and the elements of it,” says Morris. “That it is both simple and complicated at the same time. She helped validate some of the assumptions that we had but brought some truth to that as well that helped with our decision making.”
Overseen by Nancy Loeb, the Environmental Advocacy Center Director and Clinical associate professor of Law, the EAC takes on cases of real-world clients to provide students with opportunities to practice law and advocacy, with a focus on environmental problem solving. A multi-disciplinary center, students work alongside a range of experts such as attorneys, scientists, and economists to gain insight and experience in evaluating and implementing solutions to environmental challenges.
“I’m going to work in a private law firm when I graduate, so I wanted to get more public interest experience [because] I hadn’t had the opportunity to work for a nonprofit. I’ve been really into environmental law, had taken environmental law classes, and it always sounded really interesting so I thought that would be a good way to combine all those different interests,” says Morgan, regarding her decision to take part in the EAC course.
“I see this partnership with Northwestern as an opportunity to help figure out what that partnership could look like for us long term and how we can really fill that gap for the Conservancy. But it’s also creating talent. It’s creating the expertise with students that we will then want to hire in the future to help us figure this out. In the short term, we’re getting the product and the information we need now, but it’s also helped develop that talent and that expertise for future TNC employees”, says Morris, in regards to how the partnership has been a beneficial opportunity for both Northwestern and The Nature Conservancy.
Through this opportunity, Morgan emphasizes the valuable knowledge she has gained from encountering different municipal and state laws, contacting and working with real-life clients, and taking charge in the legal space that will be sure to supplement both her experience at Northwestern as well as her professional career in the future.
