Melissa Powers
Staff Attorney, Pacific Environmental Advocacy Center

Specialty Areas & Course Descriptions

Environmental Clinic: PEAC, Clean Water Act

Academic Credentials

J.D., magna cum laude, 2001, Lewis & Clark Law School
B.A., 1992, University of California, Berkeley

Professional Background

Melissa Powers has been a Clinical Professor at Lewis & Clark since 2003. Her clinical work at the Pacific Environmental Advocacy Center (PEAC) focuses primarily on pollution control litigation, and she has successfully litigated several cases in federal and state courts. Melissa also teaches several substantive course, including Climate Change and the Law, the Clean Water Act, and International Environmental Law. In addition, she co-coaches the Environmental Law and Animal Law Moot Court teams.

Before joining PEAC, Melissa practiced law and supervised clinical students at the Western Environmental Law Center in Eugene, Oregon. She spent several years, prior to law school, leading teenagers in youth conservation corps and other outdoor programs.

Melissa spent the spring semester of 2007 as a Visiting Professor at the University of Maine School of Law, where she taught Environmental Law and Coastal Zone Law.