IRVINE, Calif. — The University of California Irvine School of Law has received a $2 million grant to start an Environmental Law Clinic, the first of several legal clinics envisioned for the new law school.

An anonymous foundation of global reach has provided $2 million to create an Environmental Law Clinic to further the public interest in areas of environmental law, environmental health and environmental sustainability. The clinic will give students an opportunity to do hands-on, meaningful, real-life and real-time environmental legal and policy work. Students will work under the close supervision of trained lawyers and experienced professors. The legal clinic will be closely associated with the UCI Program in Public Health.

Erwin Chemerinsky, founding dean of the law school, said he is "delighted" that the law school's first clinic will be dedicated to protecting the environment.

"This environmental law clinic will provide our students with an incomparable, hands-on experience, allowing them to learn up close what environmental lawyers do on a day-to-day basis," Chemerinsky said. "It will also provide students with the opportunity to help protect the natural resources of Southern California, enhancing the contribution of law in promoting sustainability on earth."

UCI School of Law is also considering starting legal clinics in other areas, Chemerinsky said.

For more information: www.law.uci.edu.