Reflections on Julia Olson's Visit to Colorado Law

Hi, my name is Mariah Bowman and I am Colorado Law’s Wyss Scholar for the Class of 2025! Through The Wyss Foundation, I had the opportunity to host one of my heroes on campus to speak with students about her hard-won wisdom and career in environmental law.

Julia Olson, founder of Our Children’s Trust, visited us in April. Julia started Our Children’s Trust, a nonprofit law firm, to fight for youth rights to a livable climate.

Before I met Julia, I knew her nonprofit was doing important work in this arena: they recently won a first-of-its kind case where youth secured a constitutional right to a healthy climate under Montana state law. But getting to hear about Julia’s vision first-hand helped me understand just how innovative and bold Our Children’s Trust has been over the last decade, and how sorely needed this kind of attitude is in the field of environmental law.

In law school, those of us who take classes in environmental law learn a great deal about procedural environmental rights secured under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and other similar laws. These laws ensure that the government must undertake certain procedures before it can harm the environment. And citizens can sue if the government harms the environment without taking the proper procedural steps. But all too often, the law does not actually, substantively protect Americans’ rights to a safe and healthy environment.

Our Children’s Trust boldly asserts that people have a substantive legal right to a livable climate—not just a procedural right to hold the government accountable to its procedural obligations. And, in Montana, they won.

It was inspiring to listen to Julia talk about not only their recent win, but the decade of losses that Our Children’s Trust has learned from to get there. She told us that every loss is a roadmap to success: judges will often lay out in their opinions how to better bring the case in its next iteration.

In a time when much of our country and our profession are scrambling to find courage and come up with new ways to fight for the things we believe in, Julia was the perfect leader to hear from this moment, because she has been doing both for decades. She has been imagining a new way forward and committing to that vision for a long time.

I very much enjoyed hearing her reflections on envisioning new legal theories, on building an institution that fills a void, on storytelling and communication, on how to best build on losses, and on how to build jurisprudence and a movement. Her remarks were practical, inspiring, and deeply needed in this moment.

I am very grateful to the Wyss Foundation for the opportunity to bring Julia to campus. I will be reflecting on—and carrying forward—all she shared for a long time to come.