The Curriculum

Classes and Instructors

The 2026 Class will begin in February of 2026, and will meet on Wednesdays through the middle to end of April. We anticipate awarding 12 CLE credits during the term.

Instructors of NYCELLI Classes include leading attorneys from all sectors of environmental practice, including NYCELLI alumni.  NYCELLI applies for Continuing Legal Education (CLE) credits in the Area of Professional Practice category for most classes, which are appropriate for new and experienced attorneys. We also anticipate holding at least one ethics class.

Instructors vary by year. The 2025 class schedule and instructors were as follows:

  • Class 1 (Introduction, Environmental Justice, Community Lawyering, and Cumulative Impacts Laws). Casandia Bellevue and Jonathan Smith, Earthjustice; Briana Carbajal, WE ACT for Environmental Justice.
  • Class 2 (Fossil Fuel Litigation and NY HEAT). Christian Harned, New York City Law Department; Nicole Abene, Building Decarbonization Coalition.
  • Class 3 (Air Pollution and Peaker Plants). Gail Suchman, Sheppard Mullin; Megan Carr, New York Lawyers for the Public Interest (NYLPI).
  • Class 4 (The Clean Water Act and PFAS Regulations). Edan Rotenberg and Julia Muench, Super Law Group.
  • Class 5 (NYCELLI Class of 2024 Project Presentations)
  • Class 6 (Green Amendments and Climate Litigation). Barbara Chillcott, Western Environmental Law Center; Michael Gerrard, Columbia Climate School.
  • Class 7 (NEPA and SEQRA). Mark Chertok, Sive Paget & Riesel; Julie Cowing, AKRF; Hilary Semel, Mayor’s Office of Environmental Coordination).
  • Class 8 (Waste Systems). Eric Goldstein, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC); Christine Billy, the Guarini Center at NYU School of Law.
  • Class 9 (NYCELLI Class of 2025 Project Presentations).

Tours

The class goes on several tours of environmentally significant sites during and after the course. Tours in 2020 were entirely virtual, including Sims Recycling Center, Woodstock Farm Sanctuary, and a virtual walking tour of environmentally significant sites in Manhattan. In 2021 we toured the Gowanus Canal on the Riverkeeper Boat and toured the Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatement Plant. The class helps select the tours.

Rooftop farm

Environmental Quality Improvement Projects

Working together in small groups, NYCELLI participants develop and implement a one-year project designed to improve the quality of the New York City environment and the health of its residents. Participants develop their project proposals throughout the course of the program, calling on their personal interests, the material covered in meetings, and the guidance of the presenters, Board of Advisors, and NYCELLI alumni, and present their final project plan to the class at the eighth (and final) meeting.

While the ultimate form of the projects can vary greatly, depending on the interests, creativity, and skills of the project teams, all projects advocate for reforms in law, policy, and/or practices, that contribute to the preservation, restoration, and/or enhancement of the City’s environmental health. Strategies include legislative or regulatory advocacy, educational tools or campaigns, innovative partnerships, and the provision of litigation or pro bono legal assistance to an environmental organization or stakeholder group in support of a specific outcome.

With the ongoing support of the Director and the broader NYCELLI community, participants implement their projects over the year and return to present their projects to next year’s class: to describe their experiences, present the outcomes, and share the lessons they’ve learned in order to assist the participants of that class in finalizing their own project plans.

For examples of past projects, see the Past Projects page.