Founded in 2017, the UC Davis Water Justice Clinic is the first university law clinic that is dedicated to the implementation of the Human Right to Water. The Clinic provides legal support for rural and low-income communities with substandard or contaminated domestic water supplies to improve their water supplies to Safe Drinking Water Act standards. This is often accomplished by consolidating the community with a larger water supplier that has a water supply that meets Safe Drinking Water standards.
The Clinic provides legal services to clients throughout the state. David Sandino serves as the Clinic Director, Melissa Quintero and Lindsay Sotomayor as Clinic attorneys, and Teresa Medina as Clinic administrator.
Students in the Clinic work with clients and develop the transactional skills necessary to improve water supplies.
Information for Interested Law Students
The Water Justice Clinic is a semester-long clinic open to 2Ls and 3Ls. Students who successfully complete one semester with the Water Justice Clinic may enroll in the Advanced Water Justice Clinic with the permission of the clinic director. Students must be available for orientation the weekend before classes begin each semester and must attend class seminars, weekly supervisory meetings, scheduled hearings and client meetings, and case rounds. Interested students should attend the Clinics Information Session and submit their application for admission in a timely manner.
Information for Interested Clients
The Water Justice Clinic provides Technical Assistance to help disadvantaged communities develop, fund, and implement eligible drinking water or groundwater needs. If you are a system that is out of compliance or experiencing insufficient water delivery capabilities, needing extension of service for drought/contamination-impacted communities, interested in pursuing consolidation, or are serving less than 200 connections, please reach out to the Clinic Director to determine if the Clinic can be of service.