Kristin Thall Peters ’92

Kristen Thall Peters ’92 gained an appreciation for her natural surroundings at an early age. Her father was a biology teacher who later became the coordinator for the Water Environment Studies Program for Mt. Diablo Unified School District, in California’s Contra Costa County. She tagged along on his field trips to Mount Diablo, the Sacramento Delta, and Yosemite. When she was in the fifth grade, she wrote an essay about becoming an environmental lawyer when she grew up.

Peters’ first significant step in that direction was majoring in environmental sciences at U.C. Berkeley. Before attending Santa Clara, she worked as an Environmental Protection Specialist with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

"I’m glad I had the opportunity to work in a regulatory agency before attending law school," she says. "I had the chance to evaluate the impacts of federal flood control and dredging projects through the National Environmental Policy Act. I realized I could effect more change by working in the private sector."

Although Peters cultivated her passion while at Santa Clara by advancing to the national level in the Environmental Moot Court Competition, her first job did not have an environmental focus.

"My practice started off mainly in real estate and litigation," she says. "The lawyer that I worked for told me that if I wanted to do environmental law I would have to bring in those types of cases."

So she took on a pro bono case advocating on behalf of a professor at San Jose State who recycled everything but was still being charged a garbage collection fee by the city.

"It gave me some exposure and experience," she explains. "It was a lot of fun."

After working in litigation for a few years, Peters realized that she didn’t want to concentrate on that type of work anymore. She got a job with Fitzgerald Abbott & Beardsley in Oakland, and some attorneys there began to bring her real estate contracts to review.

"I was really enjoying that aspect more," she says. "At the end of my fifth year working, I had enough experience to be really selective about the job I wanted."

She saw an opening at the Walnut Creek office of Cooper, White, & Cooper and applied for the job. She has worked there for 10 years and is now a partner, and she was recently named the co-chair of the firm’s Green Practice Group. She develops corporate environmental programs and counsels clients regarding greenhouse gas emissions and on the range of laws and regulations concerning air and water quality, hazardous substances, and recycling issues.

Her favorite part of the job?

"We could be working on anything, but we’re all working toward the same goal," she says. "Everyone is willing to work with each other when you want the same thing in the end."