They’ve Got Next: The 40 Under 40 - Kirti Datla of Earthjustice

Please describe two of your most substantial, recent wins in practice.

Because I work at a nonprofit environmental law firm, and because of recent shifts in the courts and doctrine, I suspect my “wins” look different than most others’ on this list. For example, these days, people on the other side of the “v” from us seem more willing to seek Supreme Court review based on aggressive and sometimes misleading arguments. As a result, I spend a lot of time helping people preserve wins in the lower courts.

Last year, for example, I helped convince the Supreme Court that it should not spend its time considering Alaska’s claim that it should get veto power over the federal government’s decisions about how to manage federal wildlife refuges. And earlier this year, I did the same for the logging industry’s claim that federal restrictions on logging within the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument are somehow impermissible.

In these types of cases, there’s a team of folks who have been working on the case and these issues for many years, and it’s rewarding to be able to contribute in some way to their impressive, meaningful work.

What is the most important lesson you learned as a first-year attorney and how does it inform your practice today?

I spent my first year out of law school clerking for Judge Amul Thapar, then a district court judge in the Eastern District of Kentucky. The most important lesson I learned was the value of building an environment where every team member feels empowered to disagree and offer new ideas.

He set up systems that gave each clerk a role in every opinion, which meant that a robust process of raising ideas and flagging questions took place before he saw the work product. And he hired clerks who viewed the law differently than he did and genuinely seemed to enjoy the conversations and debates that practice invited.

My sense is that he saw value in producing opinions vetted through two rounds of good-natured, but serious interrogation. As a clerk, this taught me more on the substance than I would have learned in a more siloed process and more about how to present my ideas and when to push versus hold back.

As I’ve moved along in the law and become more senior, I’ve tried to carry these ideas with me. I’ve tried to create space for collegial disagreement. And I’ve tried to foster an environment where people can and do participate on an equal basis, both in terms of the work they put in and the way their contributions are valued.

How do you define success in your practice?

There’s a great article on one of my favorite basketball players, Shane Battier, that explains why his teams won more when he was on the court, though he barely registered on the box score. The short version is that he did everything right to put his teammates in the best position of success, even if that meant not scoring himself.

In my practice, I ask myself whether I am doing everything that I can to make sure the team I’m on has the best chance of winning. If so, that’s success to me.

That shakes out differently depending on the day. Nearly all of my work is in partnership with other lawyers—either the other 200 lawyers at Earthjustice, or the many more in the broader environmental and progressive communities we are a part of—doing what is needed on any given case to maximize our chances of success.

I’ve had the privilege of seeing some great lawyers at work in the government and in private practice, and so I spend time making sure that our stellar lawyers get the benefit of those best practices. Those experiences have also given me a pretty deep network, and so I also spend a lot of time trying to bring that network into our cases, so that our clients get the benefit of their talents as well.

What are you most proud of as a lawyer?

I am proud of the fact that—at least as far as I know—people view me as an honest broker when it comes to the law. I grew up in a place where I felt like my views were in the minority, and as a result, I’ve always believed in the importance of giving opposing views a fair shake.

None of this is to say I don’t have clear views about the law, or that I shy away from defending them. But it does mean that I think there’s value in engaging deeply with people who disagree and that doing so makes me a more effective lawyer and legal communicator.

I’ve seen this approach have a real effect in my career. When clerking, clerks with opposing viewpoints relayed that they were more likely to discuss their thinking with me because they knew I’d take their arguments seriously.

And in my current role, I immerse myself in the academic scholarship, judicial writings, and briefing used by those on the other side of the “v.” We are often before courts that may be more inclined to those viewpoints, and doing so allows me to help our attorneys present their arguments in a way that will resonate with that audience.

Who is your greatest mentor in the law and what have they taught you?

During an admitted student day at NYU Law, I found myself in then-Dean Ricky Revesz’s office, where he was holding office hours. I raised the only thing that was on my mind in that moment, which was that I had studied engineering and wasn’t at all confident I’d succeed as a lawyer. Ricky replied, with one of his signature giggles, “Well I was an engineer, and I did it.”

Somehow, that was enough to make me accept that I could too. Since then, I’ve been lucky enough to be his student, his co-author, his collaborator on a Supreme Court amicus brief, and his colleague in the environmental law sphere.

I’ve learned too much from him to recount, but one thing stands out: his generosity. He has never hoarded his knowledge, his network, or his political capital. He takes every opportunity to invest in people in a deep and sustained way. And those people, in turn, then do the same. The extent of the network of giving, kind people that he’s generated is astounding.

The law in general, and my corner of the appellate world in particular, can be competitive. But Ricky has always provided an example of a better way, and I’ve done my best to follow it.

Tell us your two favorite songs on your summer music playlist.

Maybe this is a dodge, but I usually rely on NPR Music and their Roséwave playlists to provide my summer soundtrack. They’re not making new ones this year, which is quite sad, but I’ll be finding solace in their archives, maybe throwing in “The Spark,” by that group of kids in Ireland.

Kirti Datla of Earthjustice Datla at the southern end of the Empire State Trail, after completing a 580-mile ride from Buffalo to New York City.

Credit: Kirti Datla and Jonathan Hurtarte/Bloomberg Law