Join us in welcoming our spring law externs!

Advocates for the West is an important training ground for the next generation of leaders in environmental law. Through our Environmental Law Clerks, Externs, and Interns Program we host, train, and mentor students and recent graduates from leading environmental law schools and colleges across the United States. Participants receive high-quality mentoring and boots-on-the-ground litigation experience. The program is a springboard to a successful career in public interest environmental law and advocacy and is critical to the future of our mission. Join us in welcoming our spring 2026 law externs!

María José  Aragón

María José is an LL.M. candidate at Columbia Law School (Class of 2026) and a qualified Mexican attorney with over five years of experience in environmental, ESG, and transactional law. Prior to Columbia, she worked at Galicia Abogados in Mexico City, where she advised on complex cross-border transactions and regulatory matters involving infrastructure, energy, natural resources, and sustainability, including solar, wind, and green hydrogen projects. Her practice encompassed environmental due diligence in mergers and acquisitions, permitting, water and wastewater regulation, and ESG compliance. Maria Jose is the founder of Borderless Legal Counsel, A.C., a pro bono NGO, and has led and participated in numerous pro bono initiatives supporting NGOs and environmental conservation projects. Her interests include pro bono advocacy, environmental sustainability, traveling, golfing, and reading novels.

Brooke Helstrom

Brooke is a 2L at Lewis & Clark Law School. After her first year of law school, Brooke was a Summer Associate at Crag Law Center in Portland. At Lewis & Clark, Brooke is a source checker and Ninth Circuit Review member for Environmental Law Review, co-director of the Animal Legal Defense Fund student chapter, and board member and project coordinator for the Northwest Environmental Defense Center. Prior to law school, she was the litigation assistant for Earthjustice’s Northern Rockies office in Bozeman, Montana. Before Earthjustice, she was the Stewardship Manager for the Gallatin Watershed Council, where she engaged in all aspects of nonprofit operation. She also led local conservation efforts such as building beaver dam analogs, measuring stream discharge, and planting lots of willows. She has a master’s degree in environmental studies from the University of Southern California. Brooke enjoys looking at the stars, bikepacking, and saving spiders from untimely deaths.