Earthjustice — Northeast / Mid-Atlantic Office

The largest nonprofit environmental law firm in the United States. Free legal representation for community organizations on Clean Water Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, fossil fuel impacts, and environmental justice cases — including significant work in Appalachia and Pennsylvania.

Earthjustice is the largest nonprofit environmental law firm in the United States, with offices across the country and a long track record of representing community organizations, watershed groups, and conservation nonprofits in major federal and state environmental litigation. Their work is funded entirely through donations, which means they do not charge client groups for representation in cases they accept.For Pennsylvania watershed groups, the most relevant practice areas are Clean Water Act enforcement (citizen suits against polluters and against agencies failing to enforce permits), Safe Drinking Water Act enforcement, fossil fuel and petrochemical impacts (cracker plants, pipelines, fracking wastewater discharge, longwall mining subsidence), and environmental justice cases in fenceline communities. Earthjustice attorneys have litigated significant cases in the Ohio and Mon River basins and the broader Appalachian region.Case selection is highly competitive — Earthjustice cannot accept the vast majority of requests. Groups should approach with a clearly framed legal issue, documented harms, and ideally a coalition of co-plaintiffs. Local groups like Mountain Watershed Association and PennFuture often serve as partners or referrers into Earthjustice cases.