ABSTRACT
Public interest lawyers have diversified their strategies to bring about social change. Dozens of legal actions were filed to enforce the National Environmental Policy Act and the substantive provisions of other protective environmental legislation. Recognizing that the political environment of the late 1970s required new strategies, the public interest community quickly mobilized and reconsidered their former reliance on litigation and agency-oriented activities. The targets of public interest litigation fought back harder, escalating legal costs in the process and requiring the adoption of new strategies. Relations between public interest lawyers and federal regulatory agencies cooled under the Reagan Administration. The public interest law movement clearly makes use of many strategies in fighting for social change. Many kinds of professionals in different types of organizations can effectively educate, advocate, and lobby for a good cause, but it takes lawyers to harness the power of the judiciary in the struggle for social change.
