By Ryan Stephens
A legal internship or externship at Virginia Sea Grant provides an excellent opportunity for law students to learn about the policy, economic, and scientific aspects of environmental law, regulation, and development.
During the spring of 2011, Ryan Stephens and Jennifer Lonergan, both second year students at William and Mary Law School, worked as legal externs at Virginia Sea Grant. Stephens and Lonergan were interested in learning more about the variety of factors associated with environmental decision making outside of law.
“Law school presents a great opportunity for students to learn about the legal implications of policy and decision making, however, in fields as diverse and complex as environmental law, the legal approach is only a piece of the larger puzzle,” said Stephens. Also interested in the policy side of environmental regulation, Lonergan believes that “to address environmental law and regulatory issues from an exclusively legal perspective would provide a narrow analysis given the complexity of environmental issues, and an ultimately incomplete solution.”
Mark Knee, a third year student at William and Mary Law School, was an extern at Virginia Sea Grant during the spring of 2010. “I had never heard of marine spatial planning before the internship and had no idea about the fragmented nature of our country’s ocean laws,” says Knee. “I quickly learned the importance of creating region-specific, ecosystem-based plans for ocean regulation and management and was fascinated by the prospect of helping develop a plan that would help Virginia. This was a very valuable experience for me because it allowed me to work on policy issues that were important to me and my community and sparked my interest in a career focused on environmental policy. The scenery wasn’t bad either.”
