The Florida State University College of Law is offering a new Certificate Program in Environmental, Natural Resources and Land Use Law in the 2001-2002 academic year. The program is the law school’s first to put special emphasis on an academic area and carry additional requirements.

     The certificate program will offer students two tracks, environmental and natural resources law and land use law. If they chose, students will be able to obtain certification in both tracks.
Students will be required to take two core courses in either track. The environmental and natural resource law track requires Environmental Law and Administrative Law; the land use law track requires Land Use Planning Law and Administrative Law. In addition, students will choose at least three other approved elective courses in the certificate area. The law school’s curriculum includes Oceans and Coastal Law, Natural Resources Law, Endangered Species Law, Growth Management, State and Local Law, Energy Law, Florida Administrative Law, Environmental Issues in Business Transactions, and International Environmental Law. The cornerstone of the program is a graduate-style seminar that spans three semesters, during which the students will hear featured speakers from government, environmental and land use organizations, private practitioners, researchers, and academics, as well critique student presentations and make their own presentations on topics relevant to their certificate area.

     The law school’s Tallahassee location provides significant advantages for students interested in gaining hands-on experience, says FSU law dean Don Weidner. “Because of the state agencies and advocacy groups headquartered here, most of our students are able to obtain rewarding externships.” Recent externships in the environmental, resources, and land use fields have included the Department of Environmental Protection, 1000 Friends of Florida, the Department of Community Affairs, the Trust for Public Lands, the Legal Environmental Assistance Foundation, and numerous positions in local government offices around the State dealing with land use issues. Students may count up to three hours of such an externship toward the certificate’s elective requirement.

     The students enrolled in the certificate program also can write for and serve on the board of the Journal of Land Use and Environmental Law, Florida’s only student-run environmental and land use law journal. Each year the Journal also hosts prominent speakers to enrich student exposure to issues in these fields. In addition, the law school offers students the opportunity to participate in a variety of co-curricular offerings and joint degree opportunities to prepare them for practice in the environmental, resources, and land use fields. In particular, the joint degree with FSU’s Urban and Regional Planning Department has proven popular with students interested in land use issues.

      The new certificate program will begin its first year bolstered by two recent national surveys that give the law school high marks in areas that are the focus of the certificate’s curriculum. The FSU environmental law program was rated eighteenth in the country and third in the Southeast, behind only Duke and Tulane, by the 2001 U.S. News and World Report survey of law school programs. In December 2000, the Educational Quality Survey of U.S. law schools rated FSU’s administrative law faculty among the top eight in the country.

      In addition to emphasizing the quality of its faculty, the program hopes to capitalize on the law school’s location in Tallahassee. “Being close to the center of power in Florida gives our students a great opportunity,” says Dean Weidner. “This is where the state’s environmental and land use laws are enacted, interpreted, and enforced. Our students can observe this process at their doorstep.” The program will benefit, he says, from the fact that many environmental and land use policy makers and practitioners are based in Tallahassee. During the 2000-2001 academic year, Steven Pfieffer, a Tallahassee attorney and former Assistant Secretary of the Florida Department of Community Affairs, served as an adjunct at the law school teaching Growth Management Law, as he will again this coming year. Also scheduled to teach this year are Ansley Samson of Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund will teach Environmental Litigation.
The Tallahassee location also puts the law school in a position to be actively involved with the environmental and land use Bar, Weidner says. “We will have an outstanding opportunity to provide public service to the state through this program.”

     For more information about the certificate program, and about FSU’s environmental, resources, and land use programs contact the law school’s Admission Office at (850) 644-3787, or e-mail admissions@law.fsu.edu.