Widening the scope

As she prepares for a career in environmental law, Brook Brisson has gained a new perspective by viewing the world through the eyes of Oregon farmworkers.

In the summer after her first year at Lewis & Clark Law School, Brisson visited farm labor camps in the Willamette Valley and The Dalles, talking to workers about their rights, their work and wages, their living conditions, and their social service needs.

“When workers told me about spending long hours in the fields with little water to drink and no days off, and when I saw them living in crowded spaces that lacked fans and adequate showers, my view of environmental law broadened and deepened,” she says. “I realized the environment encompasses much more than natural beauty, resources, and species. Environmental justice really means ensuring that everyone has a safe place to live, work, and play. It means protecting everyone’s right to have clean water and clean air.”

That realization came about thanks to the Public Interest Law Project (PILP), the law school’s student-organized program that funds summer legal internships in public interest organizations. With the help of a 2006 PILP stipend, Brisson worked as a law clerk for the Oregon Law Center’s Farmworker Project. In addition to visiting labor camps, she helped prepare a class action lawsuit on behalf of 350 workers and worked with the center’s Project Against Workplace Sexual Assault.

Now a third-year law student, Brisson is a member of the Environmental Law editorial board and president of PILP’s executive board. Noting that “the law school offers many opportunities for students to have in-depth experiences that prepare us to be excellent lawyers and public citizens,” she is committed to ensuring that “students connect and work with organizations that promote equal access to legal services and advance respect for everyone’s rights.”