The Environmental Law Centre Society

The primary mission of the Environmental Law Centre Society, a registered non-profit society, is to provide research and advocacy on public interest environmental issues. The ELC has three main compontents: the Centre, the Clinic and the Club. It is a multi-pronged structure that draws on the expertise and involvement of students, professors, legal practitioners, and environmental activists.

The ELC's core staff is comprised of our Legal Director, Calvin Sandborn, Program Administrator, Holly Pattison, and Program Director, Deborah Curran. The ELC's Executive Director, Professor Chris Tollefson, has been the driving force behind the organization since its inception in the early 1990s. The ELC's Board of Directors is comprised of diverse and experienced members, including law students, lawyers, law professors, and members of the community. The Board supervises and directs the Society's activities and is led by an elected student executive. All branches work collectively to create a collaborative and productive environment.

The ELC takes on new projects throughout the year and selects cases based on our Vision Statement and Objectives. Please contact us if you feel we might be able to help with an environmental issue.

Supporting Tomorrow's Lawyers for the Environment...

The ELC Clinic is nationally recognized for inspiring, mentoring and training Canada's next generation of public interest environmental lawyers. Often ranked as Canada's top law school by Canadian Lawyer Magazine, UVic Law's reputation is particularly strong in the areas of environmental and aboriginal law.

One of the key reasons for this reputation is its innovative and unique environmental clinic program. By encouraging and supporting the development of some of Canada's most dedicated and talented young environmental lawyers, the ELC plays an important role in enhancing the capacity of both BC's and Canada's public interest environmental Bar. Today's clinic students will be tomorrow's lawyers for the environment.

Transforming the Clinic - The CASE Initiative (2004-2006)

With seed funding from the BC Law Foundation, the Bullitt Foundation and others, in 2004 the Clinic embarked on the Community Advocacy for a Sustainable Environment (CASE) Initiative. This project aimed to transform the Clinic into a full-service environmental law clinic - a vehicle to provide direct representation to community groups in judicial and administrative hearings. Until 2004, the Clinic had been unable to play this role due to the lack of an in-house legal counsel. The initiative funded our Legal Director, a full time in-house counsel, to supervise the students, a part-time Administrator and other prerequisites for a litigation Clinic.

The overall goal of CASE was to enhance the quality and quantity of services that the Clinic delivers to the public and to allow us to provide direct representation to community groups in legal proceedings and litigation, particularly before administrative tribunals where a concerned community group is appealing an environmental permitting or resource development decision.

The CASE project allowed the Clinic to deliver a number of benefits:

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1. Environmental Litigation. The Clinic now provides pro bono legal representation to community, environmental and First Nations groups litigating important public interest environmental cases.

2. Enhancing the Work of other Environmental Law Groups. Clinic students enhance the work of other environmental law groups, by researching, investigating and developing cases that those other groups do not have time to pursue. For example, Clinic students completed research for Ecojustice on the possibility of challenging the province's new forest practices legislation, and the potential for invoking Canada's new Species at Risk Act to protect an endangered species of salmon. Clinic students have also done projects for West Coast Environmental Law Association and EAGLE.

3. Public Policy Law Reform. Many leading US judicial decisions on environmental issues have emerged from litigation spearheaded by American environmental law clinics (e.g., spotted owl litigation). Similarly, the Clinic works to reform Canada's inadequate environmental laws. Our Executive Director is one of Canada's leading environmental law scholars, our Legal Director is one of BC's most experienced environmental legal advocates and our faculty has a wealth of expertise in environmental law. This enables the Clinic to work in innovative ways to achieve legal change, through strategic litigation and law reform advocacy.

ELC students meet with University of Washington students at UVic (2005)

"This year, through my involvement with the ELC Clinic, I had the opportunity to appear before the Forest Appeals Commission and make arguments on behalf of the Sierra Club of Canada. This was without a doubt the highlight of my legal education." (full quote) -- Jeanette Ettel, recent UVic Law grad, Supreme Court of Canada Clerk 2005-2006

4. Creating a New Generation of Lawyers for the Environment. Enforcement and enhancement of Canadian environmental laws has been thwarted in part due to the lack of public interest environmental lawyers and legal organizations willing to take on this work. The Clinic is creating the next generation of Canadian environmental lawyers. It provide invaluable hands-on advocacy experience for law students, encouraging them to pursue careers in environmental law.

In the US there are approximately 600 practising public interest environmental lawyers, many of whom got their start in environmental law clinics. It is anticipated that our Clinic will play a similar catalytic role in Canada. An investment in the Clinic today will continue to serve the public interest thirty years from now, as our graduates pursue careers in environmental law and work to strengthen Canada's weak environmental laws. Operating under CASE Initiative goals, the Clinic significantly enhances the capacity of British Columbia's public interest environmental Bar.