Louisiana Law Clinics Live to Sue Another Day
We’ve been following legislative efforts in Louisiana, Maryland, and elsewhere to limit the activities of law school clinical programs which sometimes draw the ire of pro-business lawmakers who see environmental lawsuits and the like as creating an inhospitable climate for commerce and jobs.
The most recent controversy had bubbled up in Lousiana, as a state senator pushed a bill that…
…would have blocked university law clinics at any school that receives state money from suing a government agency or representing a client who is suing a private defendant for monetary damages.
The Louisiana Senate’s Commerce Committee debated the bill – which was actually watered down by its sponsor, Sen. Robert Adley, such that it would only have applied to environmental clinics – and did away with it, “completing a rare defeat for the chemical, oil, and gas industries” which supported the bill. Read New Orleans Times-Picayune coverage here.
We try not to editorialize much here at the PSLawNet Blog, but given what lies to Louisiana’s south right now, it does seem like a strange time to be hamstringing environmental lawyers.