Our Mission

Conservation Law Center provides legal counsel without charge to conservation organizations, works to improve conservation law and policy, and offers law students clinical experience in the practice of law and the profession’s public service tradition.

Our Vision

Our vision is to be nationally recognized for expertise in the law of conservation easements, for the excellence of our counsel to land trusts, for legal work on threats to endangered species and natural processes, and for legal support for the conservation of freshwater systems of high natural value.

Since 2005, we have helped more than 80 conservation organizations on more than 300 matters.

We focus on the following areas:

• Freshwater Ecosystems

• Habitat Protection & Conservation Easements

• Threatened & Endangered Species

• Public Trust Doctrine

• Nonprofit Governance

The support we’ve provided has enabled the conservation of at least 10,000 acres of sensitive habitat.

In addition its transactional work, Conservation Law Center has been working to improve conservation law through in high profile litigation, national legislative changes, and statewide public policy changes.

Most notably was litigation regarding Indiana’s Lake Michigan shoreline. In early 2019, the US Supreme Court preserved the Indiana Supreme Court’s unanimous decision to affirm the public’s right to access and enjoy the lakeshore. Conservation Law Center, the main attorneys on the case, have been representing clients in Northwest Indiana for half a decade since the first dispute as to who owns the lakefront arose.

Another major endeavor the Center has been spearheading is the Indiana Water Project, a public policy project aimed at improving Indiana’s laws and infrastructure to reflect 21st century challenges and demands on its freshwater ecosystems.

Indiana Public Trust Doctrine

The most recent update on Gunderson v. State is a major win for Hoosiers. The US Supreme Court preserved the Indiana Supreme Court’s decision that everyone has the right to access and use Indiana’s Lake Michigan shoreline.

The Indiana Water Project

With funding from the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable, the Center and partners compiled a statewide study on water infrastructure and have since continued to improve law and policy in Indiana.

Wetland Restoration

In partnership with The Nature Conservancy, Center attorneys have been working to clear titles of mineral rights allowing valuable wetlands to be protected and restored. So far, the program has protected about 3,000 acres.

Indiana Bat Protection

In 2016, the Center won greater protections for threatened species, including the endangered Indiana bat, from wind turbines in a case called Union Neighbors United v. Jewell. The decision requires greater consideration when issuing permits to new wind farms in sensitive habitat.

Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

The Center is collaborating with The Wilderness Society to help protect wildlife from the effects of proposed drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.