Battle between U. of Maryland Law School Environmental Clinic & State Legislators Continues
By: Steve Grumm
For several months now a Univ. of Maryland School of Law environmental law clinic has taken heat from some state legislators (and the governor) over its involvement in a lawsuit concerning chicken farming and potential pollution of local waterways. The developments raise interesting questions about law clinics’ autonomy in taking cases.
From the National Law Journal:
The University of Maryland would have to pay as much as $500,000 toward the legal expenses incurred by a farm’s owners while fighting a lawsuit brought by the school’s environmental law clinic under legislation proposed by a Republican state lawmaker.
State Sen. Richard Colburn introduced the bill on Feb. 13. It was the latest development in a three-year battle between the environmental law clinic at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law and Republican lawmakers over the appropriate role of publicly funded clinics.
The clinic represents the Waterkeeper Alliance in the lawsuit against poultry giant Perdue Farms Inc. and a Hudson Farm, a local, family-owned chicken operation that supplies the company. The lawmakers fear that suit and others like it hurt the local economy and shouldn’t be backed with public money.