{"id":1202,"date":"2021-04-13T01:39:13","date_gmt":"2021-04-13T01:39:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.law.fordham.edu\/elr\/?p=1202"},"modified":"2021-04-13T01:39:13","modified_gmt":"2021-04-13T01:39:13","slug":"spotlight-series-3-local-roots-international-impact","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fordhamlawelr.org\/?p=1202","title":{"rendered":"Spotlight Series #3: Professor Nick Fromherz – Traditional Roots, International Impact"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

by Michael Albalah, Managing Editor, Fordham Environmental Law Review<\/em><\/p>\n

Because the pandemic has normalized distanced learning, I\u2019ve been able to speak with and learn from people who are far from New York City.\u00a0 And still, I didn\u2019t expect that this project would connect me to Nick Fromherz in Bolivia! \u00a0Nick teaches at and serves as a senior attorney for the Global Law Alliance for Animals and the Environment (the \u201cGlobal Law Alliance\u201d)<\/a> at Lewis & Clark Law School. Although the Global Law Alliance nominally began its work in 2020, it is in fact an outgrowth of the International Environmental Law Project<\/a>, founded by Chris Wold<\/a> approximately twenty-five years ago and now directed by leading scholar and practitioner Erica Lyman<\/a>.\u00a0 Likewise, Nick\u2019s commitment to protecting animals and the environment at an international scale is nothing new. My discussion with Nick was inspiring. It was yet another reminder that a successful career in environmental law needs to be considered holistically.<\/p>\n

Nick\u2019s initial attraction to environmental and wildlife law at the international level probably happened long before he was a clerk in the federal courts, but a pair of clerking experiences provided an important spark.\u00a0 First, in a case involving exploratory drilling for oil and gas in the Huron-Manistee National Forest<\/a>\u2014near a river famous for its abundant trout population\u2014Nick had a chance to see the power and complexity of environmental laws like the National Environmental Policy Act<\/a>. \u00a0That was the environmental hook.\u00a0 The pull of international work came shortly thereafter, while working on a class action appeal that involved a global pharmaceutical company accused of selling dubious blood products to unsuspecting consumers in Argentina.<\/p>\n

Nick was a standout law student (he was valedictorian of his law-school class!).\u00a0 He clerked in the Eastern District of Michigan with Judge Lawson and then with Judge Evans of the Seventh Circuit.\u00a0 Reflecting on his time as a clerk, Nick explained that the diversity of work\u2014both substantively and procedurally\u2014never failed to excite. \u00a0Clerking offered Nick an opportunity to appreciate \u201cnot just what the law says<\/em>, but how it works<\/em> in the face of real-world problems, with resource constraints, information asymmetry, party disparities, and all the rest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Immediately following his clerkships, Nick practiced as a litigation attorney\u2014primarily in labor and employment matters\u2014for a large law firm. \u00a0He shared that if you find yourself working as a young attorney in BigLaw and have an interest in environmental law\u2014or any other specialty, for that matter\u2014it is important to let your interest be known early.\u00a0 Otherwise, the inertia of a larger law practice can easily overwhelm one\u2019s sense of agency (even as firm practice remains an excellent training ground). Nick reflected that, in hindsight, he wishes he would have tried harder to look for opportunities to engage in environmental matters while working in BigLaw. \u00a0In retrospect, Nick perceives possibilities that he may have overlooked at the time\u2014perhaps because he did not take the time to canvass all the options and engage senior colleagues in a deliberate way.\u00a0 Nick encourages young attorneys in a similar position to do just that.\u00a0 This was practical advice.<\/p>\n

On a personal level, Nick really enjoys South America. His wife is Bolivian, and he has come to deeply appreciate Bolivian culture<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Nick explained how time spent living and working abroad has enriched his work in international environmental law.\u00a0 Providing sound counsel in an international context requires flexibility\u2014even the capacity to toggle between wholly distinct paradigms.\u00a0 While foreign legal systems share common ground with the U.S. framework in many instances, effective work in foreign systems requires the ability to recognize\u2014and quickly shed\u2014assumptions about how law operates.<\/p>\n

Since transitioning away from litigation, Nick\u2019s work has largely focused on wildlife and habitat conservation. This includes work in connection with global treaties\u2014like the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES)<\/a>\u2014as well as work within the domestic legal regimes of foreign nations (often in partnership with NGOs and other local stakeholders).\u00a0 Nick engaged in these two lines of related but distinct work for several years with a public-interest law firm dedicated to conserving marine wildlife\u2014and now he continues this two-fold approach with the Global Law Alliance.<\/p>\n

Still, Nick credits his litigation background with informing how he conducts this work.\u00a0 He believes that starting with primary sources, like treaties, statutes, and regulations, is an important first step when approaching any issue.\u00a0 While this may seem obvious enough in the context of U.S. law, it can be tempting for U.S. lawyers to head straight to secondary sources when researching questions of international or foreign law. But this approach\u2014while perhaps appealing as a short-cut\u2014risks introducing error and bias, bias that can linger and taint the analysis even as the researcher eventually moves to primary sources.<\/p>\n

Nick also writes extensively. His work<\/a> has appeared in the most prominent law journals as well as lay outlets. \u00a0He has written on his multiple specialty areas including administrative law, domestic environmental law, and international environmental law.\u00a0 For Nick, scholarship serves multiple goals. While it allows him to contribute to legal practice, it also enables him to reach an audience with what he hopes is a unique perspective. \u00a0Leveraging his time living and working abroad, Nick tries to offer insights on global environmental and wildlife issues that may be overlooked by many U.S. lawyers.\u00a0 His advice to students who want to write is to think in terms of two main axes: plausibility and creativity.\u00a0 In other words, if a student is considering advancing a fresh argument on an issue, it\u2019s important it’s both plausible (grounded in reality) and at least somewhat novel (so as to advance the existing thinking and literature).<\/p>\n

One of the most fascinating parts of my conversation with Nick was his perspective on the malleability and curiosity needed to be a good international lawyer. \u00a0It\u2019s clear that this advice likely translates to a domestic practice as well.\u00a0 He noted how our legal frameworks are supported by shared assumptions about norms and values that often aren\u2019t codified in text.\u00a0 He explained that in order to advance goals within other countries\u2019 legal systems, one should not only learn the state of the law, but also make an effort to understand the legal culture.\u00a0 This means exploring questions like: What is the role<\/em> of law in a given country?\u00a0 How do legal institutions work?\u00a0 Are concepts like judicial precedent valid\u2014and, if so, to what extent?<\/p>\n

Sharing his perspective on the state of working in environmental law generally, Nick offered the metaphor of a Venn diagram.\u00a0 His advice was to decide what you\u2019re good at, what\u2019s important to you, and what you like\u2014and then try to work in a job that meets those metrics.\u00a0 Even if you have to take a nonlinear path to get to the job at the heart of the Venn diagram, all of the work along the way is valuable.<\/p>\n

Finally, Nick emphasized the importance of always remembering that law is a collaborative profession.\u00a0 He encourages students and young lawyers to build close collegial networks, to learn from each other, to lend support, and to cherish camaraderie.\u00a0 On this score, Nick expressed his personal gratitude for being able to work with excellent colleagues within both the Environmental and Animal Law programs at Lewis & Clark.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Michael Albalah, Managing Editor, Fordham Environmental Law Review Because the pandemic has normalized distanced learning, I\u2019ve been able to speak with and learn from people who are far from New York City.\u00a0 And still,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fordhamlawelr.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fordhamlawelr.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fordhamlawelr.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fordhamlawelr.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fordhamlawelr.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fordhamlawelr.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1202\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fordhamlawelr.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fordhamlawelr.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fordhamlawelr.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}