Yes, law students can make a difference — a big one as it turns out.
Last Sunday’s New York Times magazine was devoted to the issue of climate change. Included in the coverage was an article about law students, attending law schools in island nations, who had taken up the climate change cause after witnessing how climate change continued to ravage their homelands. They took their grievances to the highest court on earth and were successful.
In 2019, law students from Tonga and the Solomon Islands, among other island nations, organized to address a lasting solution to enforce international cooperation on climate change. The Paris Climate Accords had not proved effective, and the students wanted a result with the teeth of the rule of law. Their answer was to petition the United Nations General Assembly for recognition of a cause of action based on human rights and the responsibility of UN member nations to do no harm by ignoring the effects of climate change on their own citizens and those of neighboring countries. Four years later, in March 2023, the General Assembly unanimously found in their favor, and the next stop for the students was the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague in the Netherlands.
In December 2024, those students were among 96 countries and 11 international organizations addressing the ICJ with their grievances. In recognition of their years-long fight for the cause, the first speakers were the students, who, by that time, were full blown lawyers pursuing equally compelling causes in their home countries. Six months later, in July of 2025, the ICJ issued an advisory opinion that the full gamut of international law applies to climate change and that countries have a duty, founded in human rights, to prevent environmental harm caused by emitting greenhouse gases and can be held legally accountable for failure to exercise that duty.
It is an amazing and inspiring story, and I felt better about the world just reading it. Most of all, it confirmed my faith in young lawyers and their abilities to make differences that are needed across the globe. The just causes for making a difference are legion, and the work is rewarding. Whether that work is prosecuting felons, assuring access to the voting booths, fighting for the rights of field workers or countless other causes that need addressing, it is good work and it gives back by feeding the souls of those who labor in the trenches.
That “good work” may have special appeal for young lawyers who are not cut out for large law firm practice. The choice for good work also might appeal to those young lawyers who are not satisfied with making more money for clients who already have more than they can spend.
ASK YOURSELF how you can make a difference and whether you want to — a difference perhaps not as globally significant as battling climate change but certainly important to discrete constituencies. Think about it. Try on the possibility and see if it fits.
If it does, I hope that it will be as enriching for you as it was for my father, my husband, myself and our son and daughter for portions of our legal careers. Generally speaking, those were the most satisfying years of our practices and helped to develop who and what we became as lawyers.
The differences you can make will never leave you.
