Climate Litigator Philip Gregory ’76 on Young People’s Rights to a Healthy Climate

Following his classroom visit, Gregory made his way across campus to Ladd House for a career talk with students organized by Career Exploration and Development.

Gathered around a table with fresh cups of coffee, the Bowdoin students pulled out their notebooks and began asking Gregory questions about the links between law and the environment, and Gregory's own path from Bowdoin to the courtroom.

"How did you get from Bowdoin to becoming an environmental lawyer? What did your journey look like?" asked Amala Raj '28. In other words: How did you get from being me to being you?

Over the hour-plus he chatted with students, Gregory offered several pieces of advice, including the importance of seeking out mentorship. Identify what you want to learn and find someone who is open to teaching it to you. For Gregory, in his early post-grad years, that was trial law. "I wanted to learn how to get a case and move it to victory in a big-picture way," he said. "So I went out and I found the best trial lawyer in California to teach me."

In a bit of a twist, Gregory then said that mentorship is not restricted to the young. "It doesn't only apply when you're young and naive," he laughed. "I still have, and seek out, mentors today." It will always be important to have people in your life who will be honest with you and push you to take advantage of opportunities. "Once you have a mentor, you learn to become one," he added. "And that is just as important."

After graduating from Bowdoin with high honors in English and honors in government, Gregory worked as a lobbyist in California. That experience taught him about the importance of laws, their creation, and what lawyers actually do. He then enrolled in a three-year program at Santa Clara Universitythat allowed him to tackle law school by day and business school by night.

For the next three decades, he focused his career on complex commercial litigation, before transitioning in 2010 to workingfor Our Children's Trust and later starting his own law firm.

Though he has used the law to try to bring about new environmental policies, Gregory told the students that there are many ways to contribute to the environmental field. For instance, young people can work for experts who serve as witnesses in cases, learning about legal proceedings while also expanding their expertise in climate, renewable energy, or habitat protection.

"I don't think you need a law degree to be an effective person in the environment," Gregory said. "The activists, the people who develop a voice on issues because they have expertise are often most effective. Many of them are not lawyers."

Scientists, policy makers, advocates, and those in communications are all central to the environmental cause, he said. "A lawyer is simply the mouthpiece," Gregory said, "and a really good lawyer is looking to the expert to guide their testimony."

Gregory's final note of advice was one that students will hear frequently during their time on campus: reach out to Bowdoin alumni. "We will help you," he said. "We've been where you are. We know what it's like."

By Sara Coughlin '26, Rebecca Goldfine, and Delaney Jones '26