Environmental advocacy has been on 3L Isaac Santos’ mind since high school, spurred in part by his childhood on the Kitsap Peninsula west of Seattle, Washington.
“I spent a lot of time outside in the Olympic Mountains and the South Puget Sound area, which is endowed with such beautiful natural resources. I learned more about environmental degradation and climate change, and the ramifications for people and the natural world. By the time I was in high school, I was thinking about the most effective skillset I could bring to environmental advocacy,” he recalls.
He attended Whitworth University in Spokane, Washington, majoring in political science, and the experience reaffirmed his decision to pursue environmental law.
“I got to write a couple papers on environmental law and take classes in environmental studies. One of my favorite professors was an attorney, and I took a lot of classes from her,” Santos says. “I loved all of my law, political science and environmental studies courses as an undergrad.”
After a few years working for AmeriCorps and for a nonprofit organization running volunteer programs at a large public park in Nashville, Tennessee, Santos was ready to apply for law school—and Utah Law was a top choice because of its environmental law program.
“I had also developed an interest in federal Indian law. I knew Dean Elizabeth Kronk Warner was here, and her specialty was the intersection of environmental law and federal Indian law,” he recalls. “I thought maybe I could take a class from the dean or write a paper with her.”
Working with Dean Kronk Warner
Santos’ wishes to collaborate came true: Dean Kronk Warner coached him and other team members for the 2025 National Native American Law Students Association (NNALSA) competition.
“I took Federal Indian Law from Dean Kronk Warner and absolutely loved that class, and she asked if anyone wanted to participate in the competition. You wrote a brief and had to argue it and prepare for many potential questions the judges could ask,” he explains. “It forced you to engage in a legal question in a different way and was a fun exercise in fully engaging with and understanding an issue at a depth I hadn’t before. I felt like I was honing a new craft.”
Warner also provided feedback on his Environmental Law Reporter article “A treaty right to healthy forests? Using tribal fishing rights to challenge timber sales,” published in May 2025. Santos initially wrote it as a seminar paper for Associate Professor Lingxi Chenyang‘s Climate Law and Policy class.
“I fell in love with the topic I was writing about: the science, law and social ramifications of it. Professor Chenyang encouraged me to try getting it published and recommended I submit it to the Environmental Law Reporter, because most law reviews don’t accept full-length articles from students,” he says. “I stalled for a while and finally sent it off. It was an amazing moment when I got that email back that they had accepted it. Both Professor Chenyang and Dean Kronk Warner guided me with this paper, and I’m so proud of it.”
In late August, Santos joined Dean Kronk Warner at the Tenth Circuit Tribal Relations Advisory Committee meeting in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
“Dean Kronk Warner has been a tribal judge and written a lot about federal Indian law and tribal law. I am interested in pursuing a career in Indian law, so we talked for a while about the different pathways I could take. She mentioned that she had been invited to speak at the meeting and asked if I’d like to come with her if she got it approved. Judge Tymkovich, who heads that committee, said ‘Sure, bring him along,'” Santos says. “It was a phenomenal experience. I am so grateful I got to go and meet some incredible people.”
Exploring environmental and Indian law
Utah Law’s environmental justice course also furthered Santos’ interest in environmental law. He served as Associate Professor Ruhan Nagra‘s research assistant during his 2L year and says her research helps to bridge environmental justice and ecological economics.
“So much of law school is learning the legal principles and how you apply it to facts. In Environmental Justice, Professor Nagra was much more interested in environmental injustice and how we would address it,” he says. “The law is one tool you can use, but we recognized that the law is deficient in a lot of ways. Sustained change in society is more about supporting a community facing an environmental injustice as they address the issue.”
Associate Professor Nagra’s focus on ideas and interdisciplinary collaboration was especially rewarding as Santos helped her research a paper she was writing.
“She’s so dialed into writing a practical application that will be good for people and environmental justice and will help achieve environmental justice outcomes. I loved working for her in that capacity,” he says.
During summer 2025, Santos was a litigation intern for the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), an environmental advocacy group that protects the planet’s wildlife and preserves the right to clean air, water and communities.
“I was surrounded by some of the most brilliant and passionate people I’ve ever met on NRDC’s media, science, communications and policy teams—and, of course, I worked with their attorneys quite a bit,” he says. “Everyone was interested in how we use law, policy and science to create positive environmental outcomes and protect them from attack. It was an exciting place to be.”
Planning for the future
As Santos focuses on his final year of law school, he continues to enjoy Utah Law’s small class sizes, which have made the school a welcoming place.
“I know everyone in my class by name, and I know a lot of people who’ve graduated and who are in other classes because I’ve shared the building with them. There’s a strong sense of community because of that,” he says. “I’ve also found a lot of friends who want to use the law to make the world a better place. I love being around people like that.”
When he graduates, Santos will clerk for Utah Supreme Court Justice Paige Petersen and is also applying for federal clerkships for 2027-2028. He is interested in working for a Native American tribe or nonprofit in both federal Indian law and environmental justice.
“For centuries, tribes have been at the forefront of so many vitally important issues. I have a lot of gratitude and admiration for tribes as caretakers, activists, and innovators, and I have a lot to learn from their work in environmental justice spaces,” he explains. “I’m also interested in academia and enjoyed the process of writing that paper and getting it published.”
Santos compares the practice of law to a puzzle, which makes it both structured and flexible.
“There’s an internal structure, but at the same time you can craft it into different shapes and use different pieces. There’s still room for creative advocacy. The law is how we structure our society in a lot of ways, and because of that, there’s so much potential to wield the law as a tool for change,” he says. “When I think about the problems that worry me most about the world, what brings me solace is entering a field where I can help advocates and activists create change—and use the law in service of those efforts.”