The Lawdragon Green 500: Leaders in Environmental Law

We’re tickled pink – no, make that green – to announce the 2023 Lawdragon Green 500: Leaders in Environmental Law.

These 500 lawyers represent the remarkable breadth amassed in environmental law more than 50 years after the first Earth Day was held on April 22, 1970. We were particularly mindful of that as we crafted this year’s selection, finding many of the OGs of the field (original greens) from the 1970s and 1980s, have moved into retirement. Greener pastures.

In their stead are a new generation of attorneys fighting to protect the environment, and help clients build more sustainable businesses – to develop properties facing environmental challenges; to help auto manufacturers and others support efforts to alleviate climate change; to protect wildlife threatened by fires and drought; to find insurance coverage for environmental liabilities; and to create a future where people can breathe and businesses prosper alongside polar bears, glaciers, rivers and so many other wonders threatened on this Earth we call home.

We selected this year’s remarkable group from our time-honed process of journalistic reporting, nominations and vetting with peers and experts in environmental law. We are particularly proud of the diversity of this 500, which is 41 percent women and 20 percent inclusive.

This is the second time we have published this guide. In 2021, we published it as the Lawdragon 500 Leading Lawyers in Environmental & Energy Law. While the two practices are necessarily conjoined, we decided to give each its own 500 going forward. We will publish the 500 Leading Energy Lawyers on March 17 (and it’s not too late to submit nominations!).

Latham leads the pack for organizations on this year’s guide, with 27 attorneys included. Their team is first rate and perfectly represents the evolution of the practice from its beginnings in 1970, when President Richard Nixon signed into law the National Environmental Policy Act, requiring federal agencies to go through a formal process before taking actions expected to have substantial impact on the environment. That was also the year Dennis Hayes, who would earn his law degree from Stanford a decade later, organized the first Earth Day, celebrated by 20 million people.

And, of course, to properly recognize our Green 500, we have to give a nod to another standout from 1970. Kermit, the original Muppet, was created by Jim Henson in 1955 out of a pair of his old blue jeans, his mother’s spring coat and ping pong balls for eyes. The melancholy troubadour first sang “Bein’ Green” on Sesame Street in 1970.

It's not easy bein' green

Having to spend each day

The color of the leaves

When I think it could be nicer

Bein' red or yellow or gold

Or something much more colorful like that

 

It’s rarely easy “bein’ green,” but today we congratulate each of you for your efforts to protect the environment and for your remarkable achievements in environmental law.

It's not easy bein' green

It seems you blend in

With so many other ordinary things

And people tend to pass you over

'Cause you're not standing out

Like flashy sparkles on the water

Or stars in the sky

But green's the color of spring

And green can be cool and friendly like

And green can be big like a mountain

Or important like a river or tall like a tree

When green is all there is to be

It could make you wonder why

But, why wonder, why wonder?

I'm green and it'll do fine

It's beautiful and I think it's what I want to be.