When Dennis Esposito graduated from law school in 1974, he had no plans of becoming an environmental lawyer. In fact, that field barely existed.
“In 1974, there was no such thing as environmental law,” he recalled.
But his first job was with a small law firm that happened to serve the R.I. Coastal Resources Management Council, an agency established in 1971 by the General Assembly to oversee the protection of the state’s coastal areas.
The experience has led to a 32-year career in environmental law. “We got in on the ground floor, and I took quite a liking to it,” said Esposito, who now chairs the Environmental Practice Group of Adler, Pollock and Sheehan P.C. in Providence.
Within years, the field grew dramatically.
“The ’80s were a real growth period, because the environmental laws passed in the ’70s and early ’80s were starting to be implemented,” said Jody Freeman, professor of law and director of the environmental law program at Harvard Law School.
According to the American Bar Association, in 1980, there were 6,063 lawyers registered as environmental law specialists, and by 1995, the number had soared to 13,422. Since then, however, their ranks have declined, to 8,020.
Rhode Island does not officially recognize legal specialties, so it’s harder to track trends, but local lawyers acknowledge that environmental law isn’t quite so high-profile as it once was. Still, they say, given the state’s boom in coastal development, its numerous brownfields projects, and its shrinking supply of wetlands-free parcels, the field is still very active.
“I think that environmental law is more important today than it ever was, because of the decrease in natural resources caused by development and the footprint of human history,” said Christopher D’Ovidio, a lawyer who has worked with the Conservation Law Foundation, a New England nonprofit.
Rhode Island, in particular, has strong constitutional safeguards for the environment, lawyers say.
“Certainly the [R.I.] Constitution is very explicit about the right and the ability for its citizenry to enjoy its right to natural resources and its access to the shore,” D’Ovidio said. Those safeguards are rooted in “our early economics,” which made it important for citizens “to be able to access the shore to fish and to collect seaweed for fertilizer.” Over time, those protections evolved to also cover the people’s right to enjoy the ocean.
Environmental law can be contentious, as when local residents and environmentalists clash with developers seeking to build big marinas or coastal mansions. But in the last decade, D’Ovidio said, there’s also been a more collaborative aspect to environmental lawyers’ practice: brownfields redevelopment.
“Brownfields is a positive aspect of environmental law,” he said, “where you’re not chasing anybody – you’re working together to get these properties in use again and on the tax rolls.”
Polluted sites long have been a big part of environmental lawyers’ work. Freeman said the 1980 Superfund law – officially, the U.S. Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act – generated the most activity.
The law established liability for those responsible for hazardous waste sites, and imposed a tax on chemical and petroleum industries that went to help clean up abandoned waste sites.
Esposito started his own firm at about the time the Superfund law was passed. At first, environmental law was about half his practice, he said, “and it just grew to 100 percent. There were only about two or three environmental lawyers in Rhode Island, so people started coming because you were kind of the only person on the block, and then it just took off.”
In the 1980s, environmental programs were established at many law schools and by the 1990s, said Arnold Reitze, a professor at George Washington University, they were at “nearly every major law school.”
Roger Williams University in Bristol, where Esposito is an adjunct law professor, has developed a special marine law curriculum. It also offers a program with the University of Rhode Island that leads to a joint J.D. and master of marine affairs degree.
But making a career in environmental law isn’t easy these days, Esposito, D’Ovidio and others agreed.
“For any lawyer to try to focus their sole practice on environmental law is difficult,” said D’Ovidio. “One of the reasons that it’s difficult is, [the question of] who pays for the representation of the environment. A tree, the ocean or a river isn’t going to be your client.”
Esposito said things have changed in the last three decades.
Where before, lawyers were needed to interpret the laws, today, most businesses have in-house experts. “They’re pretty sophisticated now, so it’s not really environmental law – it’s more strategic consulting,” Esposito said.
“As a result,” he added, “we’re not really hiring people right out of college. There’s not the same need for bodies. There’s a need for sophisticated people who know their way around the arena.”
Esposito said he tells students who are interested in the field to pursue it, but only if they are willing to accept the hurdles. “If you have a passion for it, you should go for it,” he said. “But jobs aren’t easy to find in the environmental law field.”
