The Emmett Environmental Law and Policy Clinic at Harvard Law School offers students the opportunity to practice environmental law through work on a variety of litigation, administrative, legislative, and policy projects.
The clinic works with scientists, medical professionals, nonprofit and public interest organizations, and government clients on environmental and energy issues at the federal, state, and local level. The work includes writing briefs and comment letters, drafting climate change mitigation and adaptation regulations and policies for municipalities, preparing guidance documents and manuals for non-lawyers, drafting model legislation, and preparing policy papers. The clinic develops novel strategies to address thorny environmental problems; investigates new cases; works with scientific, economic, and policy experts to help them present their views about the impacts of legal reforms; advises citizen scientists; and convenes meetings of policy-makers and regulators.
Externships
In addition to the cutting-edge projects and case work that students perform under the direct supervision of clinic faculty and staff, some students work off-campus in the offices of federal, state, or local government agencies or with non-profit environmental groups. Placements include the U.S. Department of Justice – Environment and Natural Resources Division, U.S. Department of Interior – Office of the Solicitor, the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Environmental Crimes Strike Force, Oceana, Conservation Law Foundation, the Clean Air Task Force, the Environmental Defense Fund, and Alternatives for Community and Environment (ACE).
Past Clinic Projects
How to Register
The Environmental Law and Policy Clinic is offered in the Fall and Spring semesters. The clinic is also offered in the Winter term but requires an application for winter enrollment (due October 31, 2022). You can learn about the required clinical course component, clinical credits and the clinical registration/application process by reading the course catalog description and exploring the links in this section.
Meet the Instructors

Andrew Mergen
Faculty Director; Visiting Assistant Clinical Professor of Law
Andrew Mergen is Deputy Chief of the Appellate Section of the Environment & Natural Resources Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. He has presented arguments in all thirteen federal courts of appeals and in several state Supreme Courts. He has also assisted in the briefing of numerous U.S. Supreme Court cases. In 2009, he was detailed to the White House Counsel’s Office to assist on the confirmation of the Honorable Sonia Sotomayor as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.
Mr. Mergen has taught at American University, the Villanova University, the Catholic University of America, and most recently at the William S. Richardson School of Law at the University of Hawaii-Manoa. Mr. Mergen has written on federal water rights, A Misplaced Sensitivity: The Draft Opinions in Wyoming v. United States, 68 Colo. L. Rev. 683 (1997) (with Sylvia F. Liu); on energy development on public lands, Surface Tension: The Problem of Federal Private Split Estates, 33 Land & Water L. Rev. 419 (1998); and, more recently, on climate change and the Endangered Species Act, The Role of Climate Change in ESA Listing Decisions, 53 Rocky Mt. Min. L. Fdn. 67 (2016) (with Murray Feldman).
Mr. Mergen’s research interests include Environmental and Natural Resources Law, Administrative Law, and Environmental Legal History. He is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the George Washington University School of Law.

Shaun A. Goho
Senior Staff Attorney; Lecturer on Law
Wasserstein Hall, 5th Floor
6 Everett Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
Shaun Goho is a Lecturer on Law and Senior Staff Attorney of the Emmett Environmental Law and Policy Clinic. Mr. Goho graduated from HLS in 2001, where he was Developments Editor of the Harvard Law Review. Following graduation, he clerked for Judge Reginald C. Lindsay in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. He then worked for three years in the Washington, D.C. office of O’Melveny & Myers, with a practice largely focused on securities litigation, and for three years in the Seattle office of Earthjustice, where he litigated a variety of environmental cases in state and federal court, with an emphasis on Endangered Species Act and water rights issues. In the Emmett Clinic, he works on issues such as citizen science, climate change displacement, and lead in drinking water.

Aladdine Joroff
Lecturer on Law; Senior Clinical Instructor; Staff Attorney
Wasserstein Hall, 5th Floor
6 Everett Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
Aladdine Joroff is a Lecturer on Law and Senior Clinical Instructor and Staff Attorney in the Emmett Environmental Law & Policy Clinic. Prior to joining Harvard Law School, Aladdine practiced environmental, energy and land use law in the Boston offices of Beveridge & Diamond and Goodwin Procter, where her work included permitting, operating and regulatory compliance counseling, policy development advocacy, and litigation in state and federal courts. Aladdine’s work at the Clinic includes a focus on developing climate change mitigation and resiliency strategies for municipalities and tribes and creating equitable tools for transitioning energy systems off of fossil fuels. Aladdine leads the Climate Solutions Living Lab and teaches climate change law and policy courses at Harvard College and Harvard Extension School. She received her J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania School of Law and her M.S. and B.S. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Staff Members
Rosa Hayes | Clinical Fellow | rhayes@law.harvard.edu |
Jacqueline Calahong | Faculty and Staff Assistant | jcalahong@law.harvard.edu |
In the News
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Emmett Clinic Publishes Paper on how the Massachusetts EFSB Can Integrate Environmental Justice into its Review Process
July 2022 – The Emmett Environmental Law & Policy Clinic published Opportunities for the Massachusetts Energy Facilities Siting Board to…
July 15, 2022
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Emmett Clinic and Native American Rights Fund Publish Guidebook for Alaska Natives to Put Land in Trust
July 13, 2022—Today, the Emmett Environmental Law & Policy Clinic and Native American Rights Fund (“NARF”) published Putting Land in…
July 13, 2022
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Emmett Clinic Files Amicus Brief in Case Challenging EPA’s Approval of the Herbicide Paraquat
June 1, 2022 – The Emmett Environmental Law & Policy Clinic submitted an amicus brief today on behalf of three…
June 1, 2022
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Emmett Clinic Files Comments Supporting EPA’s Proposal to Reaffirm Mercury Standards for Coal-fired Power Plants
April 11, 2022 – The Emmett Environmental Law & Policy Clinic submitted comments today on behalf of a group of…
April 11, 2022