Impact at CLIPI
Nichols began her legal career as an attorney at the Center for Law in the Public Interest (CLIPI) in Los Angeles from 1971 to 1974. During her tenure, she was instrumental in pioneering litigation under the newly enacted Clean Air Act, focusing on air pollution issues in Southern California. Notably, her Riverside v. Ruckelshaus litigation led to the first court decree mandating that Los Angeles basin air quality planning needed to attain the health-based Clean Air Act goals, despite the political and practical difficulties of their achievement.
Nichols’s work at CLIPI laid the foundation for a distinguished career in environmental law and policy. She went on to serve in several high-profile roles, including Chair of the California Air Resources Board (CARB), Assistant Administrator for Air and Radiation at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and Director of the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability. Her early advocacy at CLIPI significantly influenced her lifelong commitment to environmental protection and regulatory innovation.
