Who We Are
The Chesapeake Legal Alliance, Inc. (CLA) is dedicated to restoring the Chesapeake Bay and the health of its communities. We envision a Chesapeake Bay with clean water, thriving and healthy communities, and abundant native ecosystems.
There are many individuals and organizations that are working toward those goals. Unfortunately, their efforts are often handicapped by their inability to obtain legal support for their efforts. Our mission is to help level the playing field for those working to clean-up the Bay by providing free legal services to:
- fight FOR protection and restoration of the Chesapeake Bay, and
- fight AGAINST degradation of the Bay’s water quality, its watershed and its shorelines.
CLA’s goal is to effect systemic and permanent improvement in Chesapeake Bay health through improved compliance and enforcement of existing laws, and the development of more effective laws, regulations, and policies. CLA is the only organization solely dedicated to providing free legal services to hundreds of citizens, community groups, local governments, and environmental advocates working to protect the Chesapeake Bay and its rivers, streams, and communities.
CLA leverages the legal talents of our staff with those of volunteer attorneys. Together, we enable Bay advocates to defend the Bay using legal tools that would not otherwise be available without CLA’s assistance. CLA handles almost 100 legal projects each year, and CLA volunteer attorneys include some of the most experienced attorneys in their fields, with backgrounds in land and water pollution, environmental permits, enforcement & compliance, hazardous land cleanup, contracts, public health, and corporate and non-profit management.