Environmental Law Program Offers New Paths for Iowa Students

PHOTO: UI COLLEGE OF LAW

Abigail Crabtree (21BA, 26JD) left a law fair in 2021 disappointed—her top choice, the University of Iowa College of Law, told her it didn’t have the specific environmental law classes and research opportunities she was looking for.

Abigail Crabtree

Crabtree grew up on a farm in Dubuque, Iowa, and can’t remember a time when she didn’t care deeply about agriculture. After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in ethics and public policy and a certificate in sustainability from the UI, she was set on attending a law school where she could dive deeper into environmental law, learning the ins and outs of litigating land disputes and sinking her teeth into landmark legislation like the Clean Water Act.

“I was bummed,” she says. She took a year and a half off and was weighing her options when she received some life-changing news. Iowa Law had just launched a program seemingly perfect for her: the Hubbell Environmental Law Initiative, or HELI.

“I picked Iowa. It was kind of a no brainer.” —Abigail Crabtree

HELI launched in 2022 thanks to law alumni Charlotte Beyer Hubbell (76JD) and Fred Hubbell (76JD), who committed $5 million to establish the program. The gift, which was the largest in Iowa Law history, was intended to create a forum for interdisciplinary engagement on important environmental issues, support law students and curriculum, and ultimately strengthen the environmental law bar in Iowa.

“I picked Iowa,” Crabtree says. “It was kind of a no brainer once HELI was off the ground.”

After the establishment of HELI, Iowa Law soared from an unranked position just four years ago into the top 50 last year in the U.S. News & World Report rankings for best environmental law school. This year, Iowa Law sits at No. 39.

Expanding Iowa Law

The UI has a long and storied history in environmental law. UI environmental law professors have played a part in consequential legal decisions, from upholding indigenous land rights as a matter of international law to novel scholarship on nuclear waste.

HELI builds on this tradition. The initiative has brought in premier speakers like Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer and journalist Elizabeth Kolbert, funded travel for students to compete in national law competitions, and added leading environmental scholars to its faculty. These opportunities have given students a voice in state and national environmental issues.

Students like Crabtree have used the HELI to its full potential. She took advantage of funded travel to national competitions with the Environmental Moot Court and sat in on a speaker series featuring experts in water quality law.

Crabtree’s active involvement at Iowa Law, as well as her past position as president of the Graduate and Professional Student Government and Notes and Comments editor of the Journal of Corporation Law, earned her a Hancher-Finkbine Medallion this past spring.

The HELI Effect

Crabtree recently landed a job at a firm in Des Moines where she hopes to gradually take on more cases focused on environmental law. She credits the real-world experience gained through HELI with standing out in the candidate pool.

“I’m going into the workforce a more developed person and professional,” she says. “Having those opportunities provided by HELI has been really impactful.”