The reason why I suggest this is because that as a scientist your focus is often different then that of a legal one. Legal people are looking to ensure that from a 'Legal' perspective they have done everything within reason to avoid certain situations and are often involved with reports made to regulating authorities (e.g. Local Government, EPA etc ).
To be a succesful "Environmental" lawyer then you would still need to be suitably qualified in Law and be a registered legal practitioner. The path way of an Environmental Lawyer is often much like those of a standard criminal or civil lawyer. They study law then as their experience grows they develop a particular are that they are good in such as environmental matters or crinimal or whatever. So given what your studying I would be saying you need to look at what your actual qualifications are and whether you actually have any ideas beyond standing in a court room that the roles requires you to do.
As for costs and ecconomics sadly they are often the role of several people many of which are Environmental Engineers (such as myself) whom will assess the problems and data (collected by scientists) using a risk matrix of some kind and develop suitable strategies to deal with these issues. This assessment is then handed over to other engineering deciplines, they each put in their input, the approvals people look it over and say whether we are meeting legal requirements then it goes to cost people whom sit down with us and will work out what is the best option. "Cost" people are more in the line of accountants, economists and the like rather environmentalists so you'd be rather limited I would think in areas to go with such a degree. You of course use this in say a environmental damage and its impacts on an economy however you would still only be looking at a small window of operation.Do you have to a background in science to become a successful environmental lawyer?It's certainly possible, but I'd suggest getting a minor in environmental science, or at the very least taking as many environmental science classes for electives as possible. You don't need to take things like zoology, botany, etc., but you should definitely take things like environmental chemistry, water pollution biology, limnology, environmental geology, ecology, conservation biology, etc. (I don't know which specific courses are offered at your university, but you get the idea). Even if you need zoology or botany as a prerequisite for a class, you might still be able to get into the class by talking with the instructor and explaining your interests.
If you keep those same majors, you're still going to have to go to law school. Some law schools allow you to specialize in environmental law and policy, but a background in evi sci will definitely help you.
It sounds like you want to be the person in charge "the man" if you will, but your ducks aren't quite lined up in a row. My suggestion would be to keep it simple as an undergrad, maybe reduce your workload to a single major (economics/law) and one or two minors (evi sci/history), and then go to either grad school or law school.
When it comes to a career focused on cost effective remedies for environmental problems, you're looking to work for the federal or state government, most likely in the departments of agriculture, defense, energy or commerce. You could also work for an environmental consulting firm.Do you have to a background in science to become a successful environmental lawyer?Actually no. It helps, but is not required.
As a lawyer, you hire the "experts" in their fields as needed, you are only an officer of the court facilitating in a legal dispute between two or more parties. It only helps formulating your arguments faster if you know about the details of the environmental technologies and conventional technologies to formulate the arguments in a process to ask the correct question to illicit the specific answer.
It depends on what the meaning of "is," is. It has multiple definitions.Do you have to a background in science to become a successful environmental lawyer?
To be a successful "Environmental" lawyer then you would still need to be suitably qualified in Law and be a registered legal practitioner. The path way of an Environmental Lawyer is often much like those of a standard criminal or civil lawyer.
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