"Environmental Lawyer." Twenty years ago this term carried no meaning and one would have been hard pressed to find a member of the bar who would admit to such a legal invention. Historically, it originated in the environmental movement of the 1970s, as the momentum of new environmental requirements was simultaneously propelled by an active environmental constituency and challenged by the competing interests of industry. Conceptually, however, the environmental legal profession evolved, as have all others, from a very fundamental aspect of the law—to represent the interests of society and seek to resolvethose conflicts that arise when these interests are competing ones.

The environmental bar was only beginning as I entered the legal profession, yet I felt a deep affinity with those striving to provide advocacy for environmental protection. While admitting a "closeness to the cause," and a longstanding interest in our God-given natural resources, I did not come to this branch of law as a crusader. It has always seemed to me that man, in the pursuit of his very nature and intellect, creates conflict—or the potential for conflict—with his natural environment. That this conflict will arise is a certainty. It is how man resolves this conflict that will decide what legacy he leaves for future generations. It was the resolution of such conflict, the "balancing of the scales," that attracted me.