Ryke Longest has been practicing environmental and administrative law since 1993. Since 2007, Longest has been teaching in the Duke Environmental Law and Policy Clinic, a joint effort from the Duke School of Law and the Nicholas School of the Environment. Longest Co-Directs the Clinic which brings law school students and graduate students in the environmental disciplines to work together on behalf of non-profit organizations and individual clients who seek help addressing environmental problems.
Longest’s experiences in private practice and government service equipped him to help students connect with their clients and identify ways to assist them. Hundreds of alumni have passed through the Duke ELPC, learning how to become better environmental lawyers and consultants. These students with their supervising staff and faculty have spent tens of thousands of pro bono professional services to help the clinic’s clients address environmental problems pressing upon our community. Matters addressed by clinic students since it began have included: reducing carbon emissions, protecting water and air resources for communities from CAFOs, addressing lead pollution in drinking water, and protecting residents from hazardous pollution in environmental justice communities.
Longest’s research interests include environmental justice, water quantity, resource allocation, environmental law, natural resource allocation, and professional ethics. Longest has also served a number of leadership roles at the Law School and the greater University in areas of his interest. Between 2021 and 2025, Longest served as Director of Clinical Programs for Duke School of Law. In 2023, Longest was named John H. Adams Clinical Professor of Law and he also has a secondary appointment on the faculty of the Nicholas School.
