Evan Kuo L’26 interned with the Clean Air Council in Philadelphia this summer.
Evan Kuo is a 2L from Blue Bell, Pennsylvania dedicated to a legal career protecting both the environment itself and the people impacted by adverse effects of an unhealthy environment.
This summer, I had the honor of working as a legal intern for the Clean Air Council, a nonprofit environmental organization located in Philadelphia. The Council is a state-wide advocacy group that works to protect Pennsylvania citizens from the harmful effects of pollution and environmental destruction. I was extremely interested in interning for the Council because of their strong record of environmental “wins” and the localized impact that they have in Pennsylvania communities.
My primary roles included researching and drafting memos about the legal landscape for potentially dangerous activities, as well as assisting with discovery tasks for ongoing litigation. I am grateful to have been named a Leo Model Foundation Government and Public Affairs Initiative Summer Fellow, which provided funding, as well as to the Council for providing a summer stipend.
Helping Shape a Sustainable and Healthy Future
My experience at the Council is one of the early steps on my longterm journey to shape the legal framework surrounding environmental impacts in the United States. Gaining on-the-ground experience in the minutia of state environmental law is paramount to fully understanding how lawyers can protect the environment. Although federal work might get more media coverage than state work, state courts handle the vast majority of day-to-day environmental cases, and learning how to operate within that system is necessary. The research, writing, and conversations I’ve had at the Council have taught me how to work within the state system and why it is important.
For example, one project I worked on involved determining which federal and state laws and regulations govern hydrogen blending in natural gas pipelines. I learned that while federal standards are important, state agencies and legislature have power to impose stricter regulations. Fully understanding the relationship between state and federal rules is an essential skill for an advocate to use when trying to create the biggest impact possible.
Furthermore, my internship taught me invaluable lessons in strategic decision-making that nonprofit advocacy groups must consider. Rather than having their work directed solely by client interests, the Council has the ability and responsibility to choose which cases to pursue and how to best achieve their ultimate goals. This strategic component of the nonprofit space is both fascinating and intensely important.
Transitioning from the Classroom to the Workplace
My first year of law school prepared me for this internship in a few important ways. Most important was the researching and writing skills that I gained from Legal Practice Skills: as an intern, researching is almost guaranteed to be a big part of the job, and being able to quickly and efficiently use the legal databases is very useful. Furthermore, having the baseline skills of formatting and organizing a memo is important.
“Constitutional Law” and “Land Use” were two other classes that helped me during my summer. Con Law helped lay the foundational understanding of federalism that is really important for environmental work. Meanwhile, Land Use helped me have a more holistic understanding of all the different actors involved in an environmental issue and was particularly useful when dealing with questions of how to best incorporate community input into decision-making.
Pathways to the Profession highlights Penn Carey Law students and post-graduate fellows as they launch impactful legal careers. From summer internships in the private sector to public interest post-graduate fellowships and externships, these firsthand accounts of substantive legal work demonstrate the myriad opportunities available to Penn Carey Law students and graduates.
Read more Penn Carey Law students’ Pathways to the Profession.