About Oday
Oday Salim completed an LL.M. in Environmental & Natural Resources Law at Lewis & Clark Law School in 2009 after earning a J.D. with a concentration in Environmental and Transnational Law from Wayne State University Law School in 2005. He also holds an M.A. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and earlier undergraduate work that combined American literature, Spanish and creative writing at Wayne State University. Those academic choices map a path from humanities into law, and then into environmental policy and practice.
Salim began building practical experience while still in law school. He served as a law clerk at the Pacific Environmental Advocacy Center at Lewis & Clark in 2008, and then clerked for Karl G. Anuta, P.C. in 2009. He moved into clinical work at the University of Pittsburgh Environmental Law Clinic in 2010 as clinical staff counsel. Over the next decade he took on roles that blended litigation, public interest work and teaching. He was a senior lawyer at Fair Shake Environmental Legal Services in 2014 and later worked with the National Wildlife Federation’s Great Lakes Regional Center in 2018.
In 2017 Salim became executive director and managing lawyer at the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center, an organization focused on legal strategies to protect water, habitat and community health across the Great Lakes region. That leadership role has been followed by ongoing practice and representation on matters involving water quality, habitat protection and community-oriented environmental claims. He has also worked in public interest legal services aimed at individuals and communities who face environmental harms.
Teaching and clinical education have been recurring elements of Salim’s career. He has held adjunct professor posts at Lewis & Clark Law School and the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. In 2018 he returned to Wayne State University Law School as an adjunct, and in 2021 he taught an Environmental Justice seminar at the University of Michigan Law School. His courses and clinic work reflect an emphasis on combining doctrinal law, regulatory practice and community-based advocacy.
Colleagues and students describe him as a lawyer who bridges courtroom and classroom, bringing practical casework into seminars and clinic projects. He has practiced primarily in Michigan and has engaged with regional conservation organizations and community groups through litigation, policy advocacy and education. He currently practices through the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center and teaches at the University of Michigan Law School. He currently focuses his practice on environmental and Great Lakes matters.
