Fair Shake is looking for bright, motivated, and entrepreneurial attorneys who want to build or join small or solo environmental law practices for modest means clients in the Appalachian Basin region. We are hiring attorneys interested in increasing access to justice in environmental matters and public participation in environmental decision-making.

Equal access to justice for all simply doesn’t happen when attorneys do not make a space for modest means clients in their practice. It’s not easy to make that space and it requires thoughtfulness and the will to create change. Yet, having watched Fair Shake’s young attorneys take that challenge and continuously work to mold a space for modest means clients, I think that attorneys of all background and practices (that means you too, government attorneys) can step up to the plate.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court recently issued a major decision, unanimously holding that the primary term of an oil gas lease is not extended or tolled during the pendency of litigation by a lessor seeking a declaratory judgment. The decision is contrary to decisions in many other jurisdictions, which allow a prevailing lessee an extension of time beyond the primary term to gain production.[1]

Fair Shake has a summer internship program in our Pittsburgh, PA and Akron, OH locations. We are looking for bright, motivated, and creative law students to join us for the summer to help us increase access to justice in environmental matters and public participation in environmental decision-making.  

The basics of business are the basics of the law surrounding water quality: you have to set a budget and limit your spending to accomplish that budget. For Lake Erie and other nutrient-impaired water bodies, we face the same need: our budget is only so large for the amount of nutrients that Lake Erie can take before we’ve exceeded our budget. In the Chesapeake Bay, such a basic scheme has been put into place in the form of a Total Maximum Daily Load or TMDL, which is a legally-required and nondiscretionary “budget” put into place by the Clean Water Act when a water body is not meeting its desired uses, such as being fishable and swimmable. Similar to a budgeting process, the U.S. EPA has called the Chesapeake TMDL a “pollution diet.”

Among the many possible ways to manage industrial waste is underground injection in what are called Underground Injection Control wells. As the name suggests, underground injection is the process of injecting liquid waste into a porous subsurface geologic layer in a manner that attempts to keep the waste isolated and to prevent harm to drinking water sources. UIC wells provide the conduit for the waste to reach the subsurface layer.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Megan Lovett, Fair Shake Environmental Legal Services; 412.904.2568, mlovett@fairshake-els.org

Mike Boals, interviews c/o Megan Lovett

Ohio Man Sued for Speaking Out Against Fracking

COSHOCTON, OH - A local Coshocton man excercising his right to free speech by speaking out against fracking waste in his community is being sued by a Texas company for voicing his concerns.

Land owners and small farmers are an important Fair Shake constituency, so I listened with interest to a recent radio story on WHYY’s News Works about how the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture closed a local seed library.  According to the story, the seed library was started by the Cumberland County public library to allow people to take seeds at the beginning of the season and replace them after harvest. But, according to the source story in the Cumberland Sentinal, this practice violates the 2004 Pennsylvania Seed Act, which requires seeds to be tested in various ways.  This is due to concerns including the spread of invasive species and agri-terrorism.  According to the Sentinal story, the Ag Department’s lawyer also indicated an intention to crack down on other seed libraries around the state.

There’s a movement afoot to do what we set out to do a long, long time ago: provide access to justice for all. You would think that we would have figured out how to at least make justice accessible for all since “Equal Justice Under Law” is a phrase chiseled into the building housing our highest court and we often recite the words “justice for all” when prompted to say the Pledge of Allegiance. Yet, the task has proven daunting. 

After years of planning, we're ready to roll with the Nation's first environmental legal services residency program. We're excited and want to kick things off by celebrating with an open house in our Pittsburgh office. You'll be able to meet our staff, many of the members of the Board of Directors, and the design gurus who came up with our logo.