🌱 Protection of Nature and Biodiversity

📈 Sustainable Finance and Business

🌎 Energy and Climate Change

We are Now Recruiting Bachelor and Master’s students with a passion for sustainability to work on one of our clinic projects. Could this be YOU?

Please indicate your preferred project in the application form

Essential characteristics:

• Genuine interest in your chosen project.

• A willingness to learn about the intersections between environmental policy, climate litigation, and governance, gained through experience drafting policy reports, contributing to litigation strategy, developing ecosystem governance frameworks, writing opinion pieces on sustainability and climate change, researching country-specific legislation, maintaining policy databases, and supporting community-based socio-ecological monitoring, campaigning, and freedom of information requests.

• Proficiency in Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, etc.).

• A willingness to explore/learn other software such as EndNote and other visualisation tools (e.g. NVivo).

• Ability to work independently and in a team.

Desirable skills:

A background in law, social sciences and/or science, especially in the environment, climate change, and/or sustainability.

Training and support:

You will attend training in October and November and take part in weekly meetings with:

Chloé F. Smith (SLPC lead), Professor Veerle Heyvaert (SLPC acting Director), Dr Alice Trotter (Waste Law Clinic co-lead) and/or representatives of the external partners.

Commitment required:

5 hours per week during autumn and winter term.

In the tradition of law school clinical education, the SLPC offers students from different departments the opportunity to work on real-world, high-stakes legal and policy challenges alongside leading external partners, under close academic supervision.

The SLPC connects students from across LSE with live legal and policy challenges working alongside NGOs, environmental charities, law firms and public interest organisations to produce rigorous, practice-facing outputs that directly inform real debates and existing cases. Students do not have to be enrolled in the Law School to apply.

Projects range from drafting policy reports for environmental organisations, to contributing to climate litigation strategy and developing governance frameworks for ecosystems.

Further projects may involve writing short opinion pieces on sustainability and climate change, researching country specific legislation and updating policy databases, or supporting community-based requests for socio-ecological monitoring, for information that is relevant for community campaigning and assistance with freedom of information requests.

We are delighted to host the second year of a continuing collaboration with ClientEarth’s Accountable Finance Team, in Autumn 2026.

Project background:

In 2025–26 (Year 1), a first cohort of twelve students from five LSE departments produced the report:  Who Pays for Climate Breakdown? Banks, Financed Emissions, and the Road to Climate Accountability (June 2026), and the SRO subsequently published a policy brief to highlight the most relevant findings. Working across two research strands, students:

• Strand A — Mapped how courts across jurisdictions have approached causation and attribution in climate litigation against states and corporations

• Strand B — Examined how parties have sought to attribute special responsibility to banks for their “financed emissions”, cataloguing available methodologies, their legal strengths and weaknesses, and their use in litigation and out-of-court challenges

  
  

  Key findings included:

• Courts are increasingly receptive to “material contribution” as the relevant causation standard

• Financial institutions are being reframed as active contributors rather than passive intermediaries to climate harm

• Existing quantification methodologies remain largely untested in adversarial proceedings

• In 2026/27 (Year 2), students will work on building on these foundations, the 2026–27 cohort will take the project to its next phase across a new research strand:

• Strand C — Analyse English tort law causation principles — including material contribution to damage and material contribution to risk — to identify the legal tests a future court could apply to a claim against a major bank.

Essential Characteristics:

• Genuine interest in tort law, climate attribution science and financial accountability.

• A willingness to learn about the intersections between climate science, climate law, and financial institutions.

• Proficiency in Excel.

• A willingness to explore/learn other software such as EndNote and other visualisation tools (e.g. NVivo).

• Ability to work independently and in a team.

Desirable skills: A background in law and/or science, especially in the environment, climate change, and/or sustainability.

Training and support: You will attend training in October and November and take part in weekly meetings with:

Chloé F. Smith (SLPC lead), Professor Veerle Heyvaert (SLPC acting Director) and/or representatives of ClientEarth.

Commitment required: 5 hours per week during Autumn and Winter Term.

How to apply:

Complete the Microsoft Office Form available on LSE Legal Advice Centre's Moodle page by the deadline Friday 25 September 2026 at 5pm.

You must also email your CV to c.smith19@lse.ac.uk by the same deadline.

Applications will not be considered past the deadline or if incomplete.

If you have any questions please get in touch c.smith19@lse.ac.uk.

In October 2025, the SLPC launched London’s first Intercollegiate Environmental Law Clinic – a collaboration between LSE, KCL, UCL, SOAS, and Birkbeck. Undergraduate, postgraduate, and doctoral students from each institution are recruited to work in mixed, interdisciplinary teams on a project with an external partner throughout the academic year. In addition to collaborating with peers from different universities across London, students benefited from supervision and mentorship from targeted experts at each institution.

Please Note: The current project is paused during the Autumn Term. Some intercollegiate projects, including a rights of nature project, may be offered in the Winter Term. Applications are not open now, but may open during the Autumn Term. Stay tuned.

Essential Characteristics:

• Genuine interest in environmental law and interdisciplinary, cross-institutional collaboration.

• A willingness to learn about the intersections between environmental law and practice-based project work, gained through experience working in mixed teams, engaging with an external partner, and drawing on supervision and mentorship from experts across different institutions.

• Proficiency in Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, etc.).

• A willingness to explore/learn other software and tools relevant to the assigned project.

• Ability to work independently and in a team, including collaborating with peers and mentors from other London universities (which may include meetings off the LSE campus).

Desirable skills: A background in law, social sciences, and/or science, especially in the environment, climate change, and/or sustainability.

Commitment required: 5 hours per week during Autumn Term.

How to apply: not currently receiving applications. You may express interest by emailing your CV to Chloé F. Smith c.smith19@lse.ac.uk.

Project description: 17 November is the annual Global Day of Action for Climate Justice, a standing date in the academic calendar. It offers students an opportunity to raise awareness about climate justice across campus and take the lead in organising events.

This project is student-led: our role is to facilitate and support the development of student initiatives. Possible activities include a student panel, a blog post or social media thread, or a joint event with an external partner. Over the past two years, students have organised a film screening and debate with invited speakers, a hackathon, a social media campaign and stalls at the Ratio launch, an article written for Ratio, and a panel with external guests. This year, the Clinic plans to invite Law Students for Climate Accountability (LSCA) to present its advocacy and previous involvement in the Global Day of Action, as a student-led organisation that seeks to amplify the roles and responsibilities of the legal industry in the current climate crisis.

Essential Characteristics:

• Genuine interest in climate justice, campus advocacy, and public engagement.

• A willingness to learn about the intersections between climate justice, event organisation, and communications, gained through experience planning and leading events, developing social media or blog content, liaising with external partners and speakers, and promoting initiatives across campus.

• Proficiency in Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, etc.).

• A willingness to explore/learn design software, social media platforms and design software (e.g. Canva) or event management tools.

• Ability to work independently and in a team, take initiative, and lead student-driven projects.

Desirable skills: A background in law, social sciences, communications, and/or event organisation, especially an interest in climate justice, legal industry accountability, or student advocacy.

Training and support: You will attend training in October and November and take part in weekly meetings with:

Chloé F. Smith (SLPC lead) and Diana Kirsch (Director of the LSE Legal Advice Centre) and/or Professor Veerle Heyvaert (SLPC acting Director).

Commitment required: 5 hours per week during autumn term.

How to apply:

Complete the Microsoft Office Form available on LSE Legal Advice Centre's Moodle page by the deadline

9 October 2026 at 10am.

You must also email your CV to c.smith19@lse.ac.uk by the same deadline.

Applications will not be considered past the deadline or if incomplete.

If you have any questions please get in touch c.smith19@lse.ac.uk.

We are thrilled to announce the launch of the UK’s first Waste Law Clinic in Autumn 2026.

Project description: A team of LSE academics and lawyers have established the UK’s first Waste Law Clinic (WLC) to provide pro bono legal assistance, advice, and support to communities facing climate injustices linked to contaminated soil and toxic waste exposure.

In its first year, the WLC will focus on residents of Corby, in Northamptonshire, to determine where the toxic waste from the Corby steelworks reclamation was relocated. In close collaboration with community members, citizen scientists and instructed lawyers, students will be asked, inter alia, to: complete a literature review of existing research reports and studies on waste, remediation, housing, planning, and building works in Corby; create a map and well-organised archive of the data already collected; conduct an interdisciplinary analysis of the data collected to date; identify untapped data sources for further investigation; and gather and collate additional data from existing archives.

Over time, the WLC aims to expand its support to communities across the UK and beyond.

Essential Characteristics:

• Genuine interest in environmental justice, toxic waste exposure, and community-based legal advocacy.

• A willingness to learn about the intersections between environmental law, litigation strategy, and public health, gained through experience conducting literature reviews, mapping and archiving data, carrying out interdisciplinary analysis, identifying and evaluating data sources, and supporting community-based and citizen science research.

• Proficiency in Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, etc.).

• A willingness to explore/learn other software such as mapping/GIS tools, EndNote, and other data visualisation tools (e.g. NVivo).

• Ability to work independently and in a team, and to engage sensitively with affected community members, law firms and national archives.

  
  

Desirable skills: A background in data science, statistics, law, social sciences, science, public health, or environmental studies, especially relating to environmental justice, toxic torts, or contaminated land.

Training and support: You will attend training in October and November and take part in weekly meetings with:

Chloé F. Smith (SLPC lead, Waste Law Clinic co-lead), Dr Alice Trotter (Waste Law Clinic co-lead) and Professor Veerle Heyvaert (SLPC acting Director)  and/or representatives of the community of Corby.

Commitment required: 5 hours per week during Autumn and Winter Term.

How to apply:

Complete the Microsoft Office Form available on LSE Legal Advice Centre's Moodle page by the deadline Friday 25 September 2026 at 5pm.

You must also email your CV to a.trotter@lse.ac.uk and c.smith19@lse.ac.uk by the same deadline.

Applications will not be considered past the deadline or if incomplete.

If you have any questions please get in touch c.smith19@lse.ac.uk or a.trotter@lse.ac.uk.

This exciting launch introduces Climate Change Laws of the World: From Global Climate Obligations to National Action project in partnership with the Grantham Institute on Climate Change and the Environment (GRI) in Autumn 2026.

Project description: The goal of the project is to understand how legislators can adapt national climate law and governance to align with requirements under international law, as interpreted by the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) and the International Court of Justice in their recent Advisory Opinions on Climate Change (the AOs).

The project offers LSE Law students participating in the Clinic the opportunity to collaborate with GRI and contribute to its Climate Change Laws of the World (CCLW) database, a world-leading research resource on national level climate law and policy. They will learn about different national approaches to governing climate action.

Students will develop their understanding of: state obligations to address climate change under international law; the interaction between international and domestic law through applied research drawing on the recent AOs; legislative practice across a range of jurisdictions, including a variety of national approaches to climate policy and climate governance; and structured data and the role of AI in the generation of search engines and databases. Students will work in teams to identify gaps in the current data for their assigned countries and to collect and summarise missing laws and policies. The output will include the release of a joint policy publication by the GRI and the Sustainability Regulation Observatory (SRO), with participating students credited as contributors in the final publication.

Essential Characteristics:

• Genuine interest in international climate law, comparative national climate governance, and the role of international courts and tribunals in shaping domestic legal obligations.

• A willingness to learn about the intersections between international law, domestic legislative practice, and climate policy, gained through experience conducting comparative legal research, contributing to a structured policy database, summarising national laws and policies, and co-authoring a joint policy publication.

• Proficiency in Excel.

• A willingness to explore/learn other software and tools, including database platforms and AI-assisted research/search tools.

• Ability to work independently and in a team.

  
  

Desirable skills: A background in law, international relations, or political science, especially relating to international environmental law, climate governance, or comparative legislative analysis.

Training and support: You will attend training in October and November and take part in weekly meetings with:

Chloé F. Smith (SLPC lead), Professor Veerle Heyvaert (SLPC acting Director) and/or GRI representatives.

Commitment required: 5 hours per week during Autumn and Winter Term.

How to apply:

Complete the Microsoft Office Form available on LSE Legal Advice Centre's Moodle page by the deadline Tuesday 29 September 2026 at 5pm.

You must also email your CV to c.smith19@lse.ac.uk by the same deadline.

Applications will not be considered past the deadline or if incomplete.

If you have any questions please get in touch c.smith19@lse.ac.uk.

We are delighted to launch this Central Banking for the Climate Age project in partnership with Green Central Banking in Autumn 2026.

Project description: The goal of the project is to support Green Central Banking (GCB) in its policy research as a digital media organisation. GCB is a news organisation that curates the latest research and policy proposals examining the role of finance in the climate and environmental crisis, to assist central bankers and financial supervisors in the transition to a post-carbon world. The project offers LSE students participating in the Clinic the opportunity to: contribute to GCB’s work output; meet reporters and editors-in-chief; learn about central banks and regulatory institutions and their role in climate action; and publish the results of their investigations. Students will develop their understanding of three research questions:

• Strand A - Through which legal, institutional, and operational mechanisms can central banks establish, expand, and protect a climate-related mandate;

• Strand B - What lessons the European Central Bank (ECB) and European national central banks (e.g. Germany, UK, France, Hungary, Spain) can draw from international comparators (e.g. the People’s Bank of China, Bangladesh Bank, Banco Central do Brasil) to engage in climate action; and

• Strand C - what lessons the ECB and European national central banks can draw from more constrained or contested examples (e.g. the US Federal Reserve) about embedding and defending a climate mandate. Students will then learn how to translate academic research findings into a journalistic format (an op-ed).

Essential Characteristics:

• Genuine interest in journalism, central banking, financial regulation, and the role of monetary and regulatory institutions in climate action.

• A willingness to learn about the intersections between law, economics, and climate policy, gained through experience conducting comparative institutional research, analysing legal and regulatory mandates, and translating academic research into journalistic formats such as op-eds.

• Proficiency in Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, etc.).

• A willingness to explore/learn other software and tools relevant to research and publishing.

• Ability to work independently and in a team, and to engage with external reporters and editors.

  
  

Desirable skills: A background in law, economics, finance, or political science, especially relating to central banking, financial regulation, or climate finance.

Training and support: You will attend training in October and November and take part in weekly meetings with:

Chloé F. Smith (SLPC lead), Professor Veerle Heyvaert (SLPC acting Director) and/or GCB representatives.

Commitment required: 5 hours per week during autumn and winter term.

How to apply:

Complete the Microsoft Office Form available on LSE Legal Advice Centre's Moodle page by the deadline Friday 25 September 2026 at 5pm.

You must also email your CV to c.smith19@lse.ac.uk by the same deadline.

Applications will not be considered past the deadline or if incomplete.

If you have any questions please get in touch c.smith19@lse.ac.uk.

Please indicate your preferred project in the application form.

You must indicate which project you are interested in on your application form available on Moodle.

1) Complete the Microsoft Office Form available on LSE Legal Advice Centre's Moodle page by the deadline indicated in the specific project description.

2) You must also email your CV to c.smith19@lse.ac.uk (and any other email provided in the project description) by the same deadline. Applications will not be considered passed the deadline nor if incomplete.

❓ If you have any questions please get in touch c.smith19@lse.ac.uk.

The focus is not only on high-tech innovation, but also on simple, practical solutions: reducing water use with stones, repurposing plastic bottles for irrigation, or promoting repair over disposal. How can law help create the conditions for these approaches to thrive? 

The theme is deliberately broad. Take it in whatever direction inspires and empowers you. Small actions, taken together, can make a big impact. 

For inspiration, visit the GDA blog: https://www.globaldayofaction.com/blog.