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Reviewed: 01/17/23
If you’d like to pursue a career advocating for the environment, read on to find out more about the best environmental law schools in the nation.
While the majority of lawyers protect human rights and interests, environmental lawyers protect the environment and the animals within it. Whether it’s preserving national parks or pushing climate change laws, environmental lawyers are primarily concerned with laws that control how people interact with nature.
With the increasing severity of environmental crises in recent decades, environmental lawyers are needed now more than ever.
If you’d like to help create and maintain laws to resolve these environmental crises, it’s important you attend an excellent law school that prepares you for the complexities of environmental law. This guide will go over the best schools for environmental law.
Here are the top 11 environmental law schools.
The Elisabeth Haub School of Law ranks number one for its environmental law program. This school offers more than 40 courses on national and international environmental, energy, conservation, and land use topics!
Despite having a top-ranking environmental law program, this school has a high acceptance rate of 48.1%. With a median GPA of 3.4 and a median LSAT score of 152, you have a high chance of getting into Pace University!
Interested students can expect to pay $51,240 per year in tuition to attend Pace.
UC Berkeley also ranks first as the best environmental law school in the nation. With its Environmental Law Clinic, Berkeley law students can gain valuable hands-on experience addressing the environmental legal needs of underserved communities.
Unlike Pace, UC Berkeley has an acceptance rate of only 13.7%. Prospective students should aim to maintain a GPA of 3.83 and get an LSAT score of 169 to be considered competitive.
California residents pay around $59,306 a year for tuition, and non-residents pay $67,816.
UCLA is another first-place winner for the best environmental law program. UCLA environmental law students not only travel around California and overseas to confer with field experts, but they also write and edit the Journal of Environmental Law and Policy!
With a slightly higher acceptance rate than UC Berkeley, UCLA accepts 15.4% of all applicants. However, they have higher LSAT expectations! The median LSAT score of accepted applicants is 170. Their median GPA is 3.82.
Tuition for California residents costs around $53,910 and $64,417 for non-residents.
Ranking as the fourth best environmental law school is The Lewis & Clark Law School.
This school offers students the opportunity to study environmental, natural resources, and energy law. For all of you nature lovers, their Boley Law Library, Oregon’s largest library, embraces the forest with floor-to-ceiling windows. It’s the perfect place to remind environmental law students what they’re fighting for!
With one of the highest acceptance rates on this list, Lewis & Clark accepts 45.2% of its applicants, has a median GPA of 3.54, and a median LSAT score of 162.
It costs $53,666 a year for tuition at this school.
NYU comes in fifth place as the Best Law School for Environmental Law. With some of the most distinguished academics in the field, NYU professors offer views on cutting-edge environmental issues like climate change and renewable energy.
With a low acceptance rate of 14.5%, NYU holds prospective students to high standards. The median GPA of accepted students is 3.86 and the median LSAT score is 172.
The tuition costs of this school reflect its prestige. Students can expect to pay $73,216 a year to attend NYU.
Tying for fifth place as one of the Best Schools for Environmental Law is Vermont Law School. As the largest environmental law program in the country since 1978, Vermont alums are shaping environmental policy around the world.
Accepting 65.8% of all applicants, Vermont has the highest acceptance rate on this list! Vermont is a great option for students with lower GPAs or LSAT scores. Their median acceptance GPA is 3.4, and their median LSAT score is 154!
Tuition for this school costs $48,254 or $49,700 a year, depending on when you enroll.
Columbia ranks seventh as the Best Environmental Law School in the nation. Columbia is dedicated to finding new ways to respond to environmental threats across disciplines through the ground-breaking centers, clinics, and institutes available for its environmental law students.
This school has an acceptance rate of 11.4%, a median GPA of 3.84, and a median LSAT score of 174.
As one of the top-5 law schools in the US, attending Columbia is an investment! Tuition alone costs $75,572 a year.
Georgetown’s environmental law program places seventh as well and is known for its extensive range of courses that provide students with practical, real-world opportunities to help them succeed.
Georgetown aims to accept only the best candidates and has an acceptance rate of 12.9%. The median GPA of accepted students is 3.85, and the median LSAT score is 171.
Along with Georgetown’s high expectations are their high attendance costs, with tuition costing $71,996 yearly.
As a consistent top-ranking law school, it’s no surprise that Harvard made it on the list of the best environmental law schools in the country. Harvard prides itself on its powerhouse roster of academics, lawyers, and experts devoted to improving the environment and supporting clean energy.
With an acceptance rate of only 6.9%, Harvard is the hardest school to get into on this list. Prospective students are expected to have a GPA of 3.92 and an LSAT score of 174 to be considered.
Tuition to attend this prestigious law school is $71,734 a year.
The University of Oregon is another seventh-place winner and is home to a long-established Environmental and Natural Resources program that is amongst the most sought-after by employers!
With an acceptance rate of 48.8%, students have a high chance of gaining admission to this school. The average GPA of admitted students is 3.54 on a 4.0 scale, while LSAT scores average at 159.
Oregon residents can expect to pay $44,082 a year for tuition, and non-residents can expect to pay $54,864.
Vanderbilt University ranks seventh as the Best Environmental Law School in the nation. Vanderbilt’s Energy, Environment, and Land Use Program prepares students for careers in areas of law at government agencies, law firms, and nonprofits.
Vanderbilt has an acceptance rate of 14.3%, a median GPA of 3.89, and a median LSAT score of 169.
Tuition per academic year at Vanderbilt costs $66,696.
If you need help finding out which law school you should apply to, answer our quiz and you will get a list of the best-fit law schools for you.
If you have more questions about the best law schools for environmental law, you can find the answers below!
You don’t have to pursue a specific degree in order to succeed in an environmental law program. But it may be beneficial to complete a political science, environmental science, or earth sciences degree to enhance your knowledge on a variety of environmental issues.
Yes, it ranks seventh in the nation for its environmental law program!
Yes, it ranks 13th as one of the Best Law Schools for Environmental Law!
Yes! Environmental issues are only increasing as the world progresses, which means that the demand for environmental lawyers is only increasing.
Pace University, UC Berkeley, and UCLA all tie for first place as the Best Environmental Law Schools!
Vermont Law School has the highest acceptance rate on this list at 65.8%!
By attending any of these top environmental law schools, you’re setting yourself up for a budding (no pun intended) legal career making the world a safer place for all its inhabitants!
