Legal Eagle

摘要

It was mid-afternoon inside Aloysius Hall, on campus of the Pace University Environmental Litigation Clinic in White Plains, New York. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who founded the clinic in 1986, sat behind a "judge's bench" with co-director Karl Coplan. Across the room, 10 third-year law students were taking turns at a podium, practicing their oral arguments for a forthcoming case. On behalf of Riverkeeper, Inc., and four fishermen's organizations, the clinic was suing New York City for discharging highly turbid water into a world-renowned Catskill trout stream, Esopus Creek, for nearly four years without a required federal permit under the Clean Water Act. At 49, Bobby (as he prefers to be called) looks uncannily like his father, the former Attorney General and U.S. Senator who was assassinated during his 1968 campaign for the presidency. Now his penetrating blue eyes focused on a female student as she concluded her argument. "Your presentation was great," he told her. "Great eye contact, using your hands―you didn't seem to be reading your notes." He addressed the need to paint a picture to the judge of the poor design of the intake pipe.