Tuesday, November 6, 1990 / University Daily Kansan
Environment worries law students
By Lyle Niedens Special to the Kansan
Bright green grasslands, wooded areas teeming with creatures of every shape and kind and streams flowing full with fish seemingly begging for a fisherman's hook dot the countryside surrounding Manhattan.
As a youngster growing up in Manhattan, Ted Smith reveled in the nature that surrounded him.
"My interest in the environment goes back as long as I can remember," said Smith, a second year law student. "In an outdoor sportsman all of my life."
Now as an aspiring environmental lawyer, and president of the Environmental Law Society at the University of Kansas, Smith is concerned with preserving an environment into a week magazine, the United States emits 2.7 billion pounds of toxic chemicals each year.
"Environment has been one of the biggest issues in this century," Smith said. "Or it should be."
With that sentiment, Smith hopes that KU law students' involvement in the Environmental Law Society will heighten environmental awareness.
"One of the more important objectives of the Environmental Law Society is to create an awareness of environmental issues among law students in general." Smith said. "We also try to influence local, regional, national and international environmental issues."
The society gained recognition as an official campus organization in 1988. The society first sprang up at KU seven years ago as an unofficial organization, but it faded after two years. This time around, Smith said, the society has enjoyed much more success, probably because of a renewed interest in environmental concerns.
Statistics seem to back up his opinion;
Time magazine reported that since 1984, community groups associated with the National Toxics Campaign have increased from 250 to 1,200.
Time also reported that Citizens Clearinghouse for Hazardous Wastes in Arlington, Va., now is helping 7,000 groups fight contamination problems, compared with 1,700 four years ago.
Closer to home, a Wichita house wife two years ago handed herelfew to a chair outside Gov. Mike Hayden's office, demanding to see him. She said that Wichita's Vulcan Chemical plant, which is near the woman's house, had caused her family to suffer various health problems.
As such concerns about the environment have increased, interest in environmental law has increased in the process.
Robert Jerry, dean of the KU School of Law, said, "Quality of air, acid rain, toxic waste, water quality and environmental law to the forefront."
KU has responded to this increase in a variety of ways.
"We have a very rich law curriculum,"Jerry said.
Rob Glicksman, professor of environmental law, agreed.
"Our environmental law courses are very specific," he said. "Our basic course deals with federal statutes designed to clean up pollution."
Gleickman views the society as an extension of that environmental law education.
"The society organizes KU's entry into the annual Environmental Law Moot Court in Long Island, N.Y," he gives presentations.
In addition, the society involves itself in special projects pertaining to
environmental law. Recently, the society has been involved in the American Bar Inter-Generational Law and the International Law of the Environment.
ABIGALE, coordinated by C.J. Poirier of Shughart, Thomson and Kilroy, a Kansas City, Mo., law firm, is an attempt to develop international environmental guidelines. The society has assisted Poirier in the project by attempting to gain the endorsement of a university school in the United States. The proposal eventually will be presented to the United Nations.
"We've had a small part," Smith said of the society's involvement in the project. "But I hope it's been an important part."
All of that aside, one of the society's most important aspects, at least to its members, may be the enhancement opportunities in environmental law.
Such opportunities should be plentiful for years to come. The consensus is that environmental law will be a growing field in the 21st century.
Margaret Pemberton, an environmental lawyer for North and Chionouma in Kansas City, Mo., said, "Environmental law is one of the faster growing sectors of law. You know that is where firms are putting their money and stressing that area.
Smith echoed Pemberton's sentiments.
"There is a bigger job market than there has ever been for environmental lawyers," he said. "People are reluctant to the price for their irresponsibility."
In light of the wide variety of opportunities available in environmental law, Smith said the society helped prepare members by giving them contacts in the field through conferences attended by the society, as well as through speakers invited to make presentations.
"We clearly have a lot further to go," he said. "But this illustrates a growing national awareness about the environment."
And that can't be bad news for the fish in Manhattan, or the society.
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