About Us

Our History

Earthjustice was founded as the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund in 1971. Since then, it has become the leading nonprofit environmental law firm in the country.

In 1965, the Sierra Club launched a campaign to protect the spectacular Mineral King valley in the Sierra Nevada in California. The opponent was Walt Disney Productions, which intended to turn this secluded valley into one of the world's largest, most elaborate ski resorts.

After a number of unsuccessful attempts to halt the project through the political system, the Board of Directors of the Sierra Club authorized the filing of its first lawsuit—directed at preventing the development of Mineral King—in 1969.

A San Francisco attorney working at a reduced rate took the case all the way to the Supreme Court, which heard the argument in 1971 and handed down the decision in 1972. The Sierra Club technically lost, but was allowed to return to the lower courts to try again. It did so; the project was again blocked pending completion of an environmental impact study.

By this time, Disney had grown tired of the notoriety the case had generated and pulled out of the project. The result of the litigation was the preservation of Mineral King and the confirmation of citizens' rights to seek review of environmental disputes in courts of law.

Meanwhile, Don Harris and Fred Fisher, two of the volunteer attorneys involved with the Sierra Club legal committee during the Mineral King case, established the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund in San Francisco in 1971—an organization fully independent from the Sierra Club with its own board of trustees, staff, and contributors.

From day one Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund used the law to even the odds against powerful special interests, putting the organization at the center of major environmental issues—from protecting the water we drink and air we breathe to safeguarding cherished places like Yellowstone National Park and the Tongass National Forest.

We have provided legal representation—at no cost—to more than 600 clients, ranging from large national groups such as The Wilderness Society, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the National Audubon Society, to smaller state and community coalitions, such as the Alaska Center for the Environment and the Friends of the Everglades.

Over the years, we added a Policy and Legislative department to deal with legislative backlash against our courtroom victories and to protect the laws we rely on. We created an International Program to address human rights, trade and environmental issues, and developed a Communications department to focus on public education.

In 1997, we changed our name to Earthjustice, to better reflect our role as a legal advocate for not just the Sierra Club, but hundreds of others clients as well.

What has not changed since the Mineral King days, is our commitment to enforcing the law -- still the most powerful tool we have for protecting our precious environment.

Thanks to the more than 70,000 generous individuals that support our work, as well as the charitable foundations, and our board of trustees, Earthjustice will continue to protect the earth's magnificent and fragile places, and the rights of our families to live in healthy communities with clean water and clean air.