Earth Law Apprenticeship Program

A new pathway for individuals from anywhere around the world to become Earth Lawyers, qualified in England & Wales. 

This pathway:

• does not require attendance at law school, for those who already have a degree; 

• requires two years' qualifying work experience, which can be obtained in up to 4 different organisations involved in legal service delivery, anywhere around the world.

Earth Law Center will offer an institutional home for legal apprentices looking to incorporate ancient wisdoms with modern law and technologies to weave new and better systems to heal and regenerate our relationships with each other and the planet. 

Apprentices will make connections with a community of like minded practitioners and legal service providers. Law firms and clients will have an opportunity to connect with each other and projects related to Earth law, an emerging body of ecocentric law that includes the rights and guardianship of Nature, ecocentric governance, rights of future generations, and other transformative legal movements for the planet. 

UK Legal Pathway

The apprenticeship path referenced here is the new general path for qualifying as a solicitor in the UK as of 2021, for those who already have a degree. In order to qualify as a solicitor in England and Wales, individuals need to:

• hold a degree in any subject or an equivalent qualification (such as an apprenticeship) or work experience

• complete two stages of assessment, SQE1 and SQE2

• complete two years of qualifying work experience (QWE)

• satisfy the Solicitor Regulation Authority's (SRA) character and suitability requirements

The pathway itself is entirely independent of the Earth Law Center (ELC)— it is not operated nor regulated by ELC. ELC’s role in an apprentice’s qualification process is through connecting apprentices with a validator— a UK licensed solicitor who can sign off on Qualifying Work Experience as meeting the SRA requirements. Neither ELC nor the validator “evaluate” the work of the apprentice, their role is to sign off on the work experience. Evaluation and licensure, ultimately, happens via passing the two qualifying exams: SQE 1 and 2. Ensuring compliance with the UK’s solicitor process is ultimately the responsibility of the apprentice— but the community is here to help. Additional information and references are available upon request.  

Lawyers who become licensed in the UK can subsequently qualify as a foreign lawyer in other jurisdictions according to the specific rules of that jurisdiction. 

The Program

For apprentices: Earth Law Center will invite select individuals pursuing an apprenticeship pathway focused on Earth Law to become legal fellows. These fellows will have access to a like-minded community of practitioners, and connections to opportunities for qualifying work experience (QWE). 

For law firms and legal professionals: Legal professionals and firms are invited to become partners. Partners may be involved in a variety of ways: offering trainings, subject matter expertise, pro bono hours towards a project, acting as a validator (UK licensed lawyers only), or as a host organisation for fellows to undertake projects that count towards their qualifying work experience (anywhere around the world). Partners are also champions and ambassadors for Earth law and new cultures of legal practice. Program partners are part of the community and equally invited participate in social exchanges and informal activities online. Program partners gain access to a cohort of value-aligned, subject-matter informed practitioners.

Funding: The program does not offer funding or involve monetary exchange. However, unlike going to law school, the UK’s apprenticeship program does not cost money, and is open to people anywhere in the world. Arrangements for individual QWE placements are up to each fellow and their host organisation.

Community: The program will build a peer driven community focused on learning and unlearning. It will seek to acknowledge and break the power-over of law, inviting a new class of practitioners that honour multiple cosmologies and logics of accountability, trust, and collective action. Apprentices will be invited to see the law as a tool for protecting and nurturing alternative logics to take root, both new and ancestral. Activities are envisioned to include coordinating discussions, readings, conference attendance, and self-organised seminars, as well as somatic practices, ritual, narrative and myth.

New communities of practice will be necessary as the law responds to changing needs, weaving together in an understory of people who know how to find and recognize each other. An emerging practice of legal work that seeks to centre ancestral ways of relating and non-extractive patterns with modern technologies and systems. This program will seed, recognize, model, and legitimise this emerging, integrated practice of Earth Law.

Get Involved

Interested? Please contact info@earthlaw.org or fill out the form at https://www.earthlawcenter.org/join-us to indicate your interest area.