Fair Shake Environmental Legal Services is excited to be celebrating the completion of our inaugural Equal Justice Works Fellow’s project. Brooke Christy joined our team with the goal of providing direct representation to tenants experiencing lead exposure while collaborating with community organizations dedicated to the prevention and remediation of lead exposure within the Appalachian Basin. Our team worked in collaboration with Brooke to develop this project after she completed an internship with our organization.
Fair Shake recognizes that the existence of environmental pollutants inside homes is environmental injustice—one not always championed by environmental advocates. Guided by our Executive Director’s past experience as Solicitor for the Allegheny County Health Department, our team was aware that the average American spends 90% of their time inside their homes. Thus, we collectively expressed support to expand our work to better support healthy housing, such as helping families and communities impacted by lead.
Lead exposure continues to have disproportionate impacts on historically marginalized communities, including communities of color and low-income residents. This project recognizes that tenants and their families are uniquely vulnerable to lead exposure due to barriers to access preventative and remediation resources. It also recognizes that the aging infrastructure of the Appalachian Basin puts these communities at higher risk than the national average. The fellowship directly serves Fair Shake’s mission to foster equal access to environmental justice, provide education in legal service entrepreneurship, and support community empowerment.
During Brooke’s two-year fellowship, she has:
Provided legal counsel to 20 individuals impacted by lead exposure
Directly representing three mothers determined to protect their families from the ongoing risk of lead exposure
Hosted approximately 25 community workshops, reaching over 1,000 tenants and allies
Distributed more than 5,200 pieces of educational literature
Built relationships with 28 organizations across three states
Created 24 legal and educational resources to support our firm, our partners, and the communities we serve
This work would not have been possible without Equal Justice Works and our sponsor, Fenwick & West LLP. We sincerely appreciate their support because it gave us the foundation that we needed to continue this work for years to come.
Prior to being awarded this fellowship grant, our ability to assist families experiencing lead exposure was extremely limited. Not only are these cases complex and resource intensive, but also, the laws governing lead exposure vary greatly across the jurisdictions that we serve. By bringing Brooke onto the team to focus on lead exposure as a subject matter, we have been able to build organizational knowledge on how our firm can assist these cases across jurisdictions. We are excited to announce that because of the success of this fellowship, we have been able to secure funding for Brooke to join our team as a Staff Attorney.
We hope this story is not only a celebration but a reminder of what is possible through community collaboration. Fair Shake hopes to continue hosting Equal Justice Works fellows and fostering new lawyers who are committed to community lawyering. If you are a law student that is passionate about environmental justice issues in the Appalachian region, consider reaching out to us to apply for an internship and/or discuss the Equal Justice Work’s Design-Your-Own Fellowship. We host interns each semester and annually submit applications to EJW. For the most up-to-date details on opportunities, click here.
