Legal Fellows: Celebrating Ka’sha, Welcoming Teryn

A core part of Crag’s mission is helping to train the next generation of advocates for justice. Since launching our Legal Fellow Program in 2013, we have mentored six new attorneys at the start of their careers, and each one fostered creativity on our team and innovative solutions for our clients. We’re excited to announce our next fellow transition – honoring outgoing fellow Ka’sha Bernard, and welcoming Teryn Yazdani as our next Legal Fellow!

Ka’sha Bernard joined our team as a Legal Fellow in 2018 for a 2-year term. In August, she “graduated” on to her next career step. Ka’sha has joined the Center for International Environmental Law in Washington, D.C., to work with frontline communities on the Gulf Coast and Appalachia who are fighting fossil fuel development of plastic infrastructure. We will miss Ka’sha, and I will feel deeply her absence from our team. 

Ka’sha first joined Crag as a summer associate after her second year at Notre Dame Law School. I will always remember her first day at Crag, when we drove up the Columbia River Gorge from Portland to Cascade Locks, to visit the springs where Nestle was proposing a new water bottling plant. It was Ka’sha’s first visit to the Gorge, and for anyone who has been there, you can picture the awe it strikes at first sight. After the Nestle victory, Ka’sha helped us stand with communities, fighting on issues ranging from freeway expansion to fossil fuel pipeline development. Ka’sha is a beacon of joy, a natural connector of people, and a thoughtful problem-solver. We are excited to see what she accomplishes next.

Teryn Yazdani also spent a summer with Crag after her second year of law school at Lewis & Clark here in Portland. Born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi, Teryn earned a B.A. in Anthropology and Environmental Studies from Tulane University in New Orleans. During her time at Lewis & Clark Law School, Teryn gained experience as a student volunteer and project coordinator with the Northwest Environmental Defense Center and as a student clinician with Earthrise Law Center.

In addition to working at Crag as Summer Associate, Teryn also stayed on to work with us as a Legal Extern through the fall of her final year of law school. In February 2020, Teryn was named one of Lewis & Clark Law School’s first Diehl Environmental Law Fellows; this fellowship was awarded to only four law students who sought specifically to pursue careers in public interest environmental law work. Teryn graduated from Lewis & Clark with a J.D. and a certificate in Environmental and Natural Resource Law. She now joins the Crag Law Center team as a Legal Fellow.

“I am so grateful for the opportunity to come back to Crag as their legal fellow and have the chance to work alongside such a talented group of passionate environmental lawyers. I had always hoped that, upon graduating law school, I would be able to use my degree to advocate for the future of the environment—there is no better place than Crag to learn how to do just that! I’m so proud to be a part of a legal team that not only succeeds in showing up for the environment but also for the community.” – Teryn Yazdani

Please help us welcome Teryn to our team!