Environmental Lawyer
Environmental attorneys support new laws and regulations that are aimed at protecting the environment from hazardous waste and materials. They also defend existing laws and regulations.
An environmental lawyer is what?
Environmental lawyers commonly perform the following duties:
- Analyze and interpret information gathered from reviews, case law, civil and criminal regulatory studies, and sample findings in the literature and other sources.
- conducts scientific interviews to assess data from court cases and trials
- evaluates environmental event harm while proposing punitive monetary damages and values
- Help protect the environment and its natural resources by acting as both advisors and legal activists.
- develops a case, speaks with clients, witnesses, and potential witnesses, gathers evidence, and presents the case at trial.
An Ordinary Day
Environmental attorneys offer clients advice on sustainability and green standards. They offer clients advice on topics like land management, clean climate change law, clean water technologies, and water law.
They may meet with clients, look into new environmental legal developments, create legal papers, and inform the public about the value of environmental law, depending on where they work. Additionally, they devote a lot of time on legal hearings.
Regular Work Hours
Typically, this is a full-time job with a 40-hour work week. Hours may vary, be strange, long, or arduous depending on the case loads.
Future Job Growth
The desire for people to enforce and legislate new and existing laws assisting with climate change and global warming rises as sustainability and global priorities do.
Common Employers
Typically, environmental lawyers work for government entities, non-profit organizations, or environmental organizations. Others could open their own practices or start consultancy businesses.
How to Become a Lawyer for the Environment
An environmental lawyer may need to attend school for about 7 years before earning the necessary credentials to practice law. A bachelor’s degree in a comparable field is required, then 3 years of law school, to pursue a career in this sector. After graduating from law school, a candidate must pass the state bar exam in the jurisdiction in which they intend to practice law.
Environmental Attorney Pay Information
The information below will help you learn more about this profession. The editorial material and recommendations on this page are based on our research, while the income and growth information is based on newly released Bureau of Labor Statistics.
- Low Range for National Annual Salaries
- $76,300 on average and $136,260 on the high end
- nationwide minimum wage
- Little Range
- $37/hr on average and $66/hr on the high end
How do environmental lawyer salaries compare to those at other American jobs? According to the most recent statistics on employment across the country, environmental lawyers can earn an average yearly salary of $136,260, or $66 per hour. When just starting out or depending on the state you live in, they may make as little as $76,300, or $37 per hour.
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