Yume Hoshijima

I’m Yume (pronounced “you may”). I’m an attorney at Sher Edling LLP in San Francisco, where I represent states and local governments across the United States in climate change and environmental litigation.

I was born in Japan and grew up in San Diego, where I benefited from strong public schools with dedicated educators, worked as a surf camp counselor, and successfully sued the San Diego Unified School District in a political speech case with representation from the local ACLU chapter (see 2011 WL 6463041).

I majored in Environmental Studies at Yale (BA 2015), then stayed there to study climate change and environmental law (JD/MEM 2019). During graduate school, I devoted time to clinical and community service work; helped teach undergraduates about sustainability; summered at EDF, NRDC, and Earthjustice; served as an Articles and Essays Editor and wrote a Note for the Yale Law Journal; and was an inaugural fellow in a public policy program run by former U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry.

Then, I clerked for the Honorable John A. Kronstadt of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California and the Honorable Scott M. Matheson, Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.

In my spare time, I spend lots of time outdoors: I train for standard-distance triathlons, and I explore the Bay Area’s numerous parks. I’m a news junkie who prizes and hoards interesting and occasionally useful information. If not for my belief that today’s grave environmental problems require legal responses, I would have been an aerospace, civil, or mechanical engineer: I’m fascinated by complicated machines, civil infrastructure, and technology in general.

I believe that the rule of law is of paramount importance and that attorneys have a sacrosanct obligation to uphold the quality of justice, especially given the Trump Administration’s unprecedented attacks on our constitutional order and civic institutions. Attorneys have a special duty to stand up for members of minority groups who have been the first to be targeted with abuses of power.

Please don’t hesitate to get in touch at yume.hoshijima [at] aya.yale.edu.