Karen Schmidt, Vermont Law School

After checking the law school's website and studying other ENRL cases, she knew “hands-down” that Vermont Law School was the right choice for her. She is now on track in graduate in 2012 with joint Juris Doctor and Master of Environmental Law and Policy degrees.

As a student clinician with the ENRLC, Schmidt has been fighting a natural gas pipeline project in Puerto Rico. Just recently, Schmidt and her team drafted and filed a letter of intent to sue the US Army Corps of Engineers over the project. According to the ENRL, the 92-mile pipeline project violates the Endangered Species Act as well as other federal laws.


Through her involvement in the case, Schmidt has already made two trips to Puerto Rico to conduct interviews and to examine the route of the planned pipeline. Additionally, she has devoted hours to both evidence evaluation and research. Schmidt, along with two other ENRLC student clinicians, collaborated with the environmental law clinic at the University of Puerto Rico on the matter. They have also worked closely with other attorneys, scientist, conservation groups, and concerned citizens alike.

“Being able to see a case, basically from its inception through the notice of intent to sue, is a big undertaking. Students in the classroom don't realize that you have to know a case in and out, every little nuance, and you have to just pore over the evidence you have at hand,” said Schmidt.

Schmidt initially set her sights on law school after serving as an AmeriCorps volunteer in 2007, during which time she was responsible for surveying a diseased habitat. She studied the decline in the salmon populations in the upper Klamath River and she conducted biological field research and sampling for the California Department of Fish and Game. “I was concerned about the effect of watershed health on the citizens, tribes, and ranchers living in the river basin,” said Schmidt. She began to look to law school as a means of developing the tools to address such issues.

Schmidt, who graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a BA in Environmental Studies and Political Science in 2006, intends to put her legal skills to use in either California or the Pacific Northwest following her graduation.

“There's no doubt in my mind that I want to do work in the public interest realm. It's my passion to assist the actual communities and individuals affected by the modification of fragile ecosystems,” said Schmidt.

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