Big Impacts: Working for Small Nonprofits in Rural Settings

Both the opportunities and challenges of working in a small nonprofit are substantial. For those lucky enough to find an organization with a mission that aligns with your values, legal work can be extremely rewarding. Attorneys at small nonprofits often handle all stages of many different kinds of cases and have a wider variety of legal experience than their big firm peers. They are also involved in running and growing the organization and are responsible for seeing the organization through hard times. Join Wasserstein Fellow Mary Cromer as she talks about her career path from clerking, to working for a big green organization, to working for ACLC. She will also talk specifically about her time at ACLC and how my “work” here has been about much more than the work of running the organization’s environmental justice program area.

Mary Cromer is an environmental justice attorney working in Central Appalachia’s coalfield region. Mary represents individuals and community groups in Central Appalachia on a variety of environmental justice issues stemming from the region’s century of dependence on coal mining and other resource extraction. Mary represents clients suffering damage and pollution from nearby mining, clients whose property rights are infringed by mining companies, and communities whose water and sewer systems are failing after decades of disinvestment. The issues facing ACLC’s clients are systemic and far too common in Central Appalachia. ACLC’s policy team, of which Mary is a part, advocates for changes to address the legacy costs of coal mining in the region and ensure the region’s transition away from coal is just and equitable. Mary has worked at ACLC since 2008 and became Deputy Director in 2018. Prior to joining ACLC, Mary worked as an Associate Attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center and clerked for the Honorable Glen Conrad of the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia. She earned her JD magna cum laude from Washington & Lee University School of Law.

Lunch provided. RSVP below.

If you or an event participant requires disability-related accommodations, please contact HLS Accessibility Services at accessibility@law.harvard.edu two weeks in advance of the event.