From Florida to Alaska, our team of lawyers is taking on some of the most pressing environmental battles of our time. With the year coming to an end, some of the attorneys taking on this administration have shared what inspires them to keep fighting. 

When Tania Galloni heard about the cruel immigrant detention center being built in the Florida Everglades, she did not hesitate.

“It was just so fundamentally wrong. Wanting to detain thousands of people in the heart of the Everglades, setting up these makeshift structures. The impetus was just – OK, what do we need to do? Because we're doing it.”

Galloni and a team of environmental lawyers challenged the Everglades detention center in court. They won a crucial early victory when the judge sided with them, ordering the center to wind down operations while the case played out. Yet when the state of Florida appealed, an appellate court paused the order.

Reporters have asked Galloni: was it worth it? Why fight if you aren’t sure of victory?

To Galloni, the answer is obvious.

“Anytime we don't show up for a fight, it's a loss,” she says. “We won't always win, but showing up is the only way you can win. The only way you lose is if you don't fight – and then, you're ceding ground. If we don’t fight, then we’re allowing a world to develop where bad things get normalized. And we're not going to do that. We're the ones showing up saying no."