From the Lab to the Law

“It was great. I really loved the program. It was fantastic,” says Jay Goodman ’96 in reference to the program in cell biology at Yale where he earned his PhD in 2003.

So why is he now at Albany Law School?

“You have an awful lot of time to think while you’re sitting at the microscope,” says Goodman, “and although I still really loved the science and enjoyed what I was doing, I came to realize that in the long run, it wasn’t going to be that satisfying. Twenty years from now, I’d look back and see, hopefully, that I’d had a successful scientific career, and that would be great, but I just didn’t think it would be enough.”

Part of the reason he didn’t think it would be enough is that he had become really interested in and concerned about environmental issues. His spouse, Anne Rhoads ’96, is also an URSI alum (they got married in the Shakespeare Garden) who earned her PhD in forest ecology from Brown University and is currently on maternity leave from a career in land conservation. “That’s her real passion—preserving open space. Her interest in environmental issues really raised my awareness, and I started following these issues more closely. It seemed to me I had a choice. I could either be a scientist who actively advocated for better environmental practices on the side, or I could make a career change and do that full time.”

Although he says he’s “had his fill” of classroom work, he’s enjoying law school. “It’s similar to science in that it presents you with a problem to analyze and solve, but it’s a much different process. I like that it’s much more focused on argument and communication than graduate school was.” He’s already gotten his feet wet, interning with the Conservation Law Foundation in Providence, Rhode Island, to advocate for wider use of alternative fuels like biodiesel.

There are certainly easier and more cost-effective paths to a career in environmental law. But there may not be any better training, given the complexity of the technical and scientific data that enters into discussions about environmental policy. Still, making the decision to apply his scientific training to environmental law and advocacy wasn’t exactly easy. Goodman credits his liberal arts background with his ability to analyze a problem—whether in science, or law, or life—from multiple perspectives. “It’s important to try to avoid getting stuck where you can only look at things in one particular way, and having a well-rounded background helps you to do that,” he says. “Luckily I have a very supportive wife.”