Ryke Longest currently serves as the Director of the Environmental Law and Policy Clinic and a Clinical Professor of Law at the Duke University School of Law. He supervises students practicing in the clinic and teaches the seminar portion of the clinic.

Longest received his B.A. in English from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill in 1987 and graduated from the University of North Carolina School of Law in 1991. Prior to coming to Duke he ran a solo law practice and worked for 14 years at the North Carolina Department of Justice.  At NCDOJ, he litigated cases before administrative agencies, state courts, federal courts and appellate courts at all levels. He also drafted legislation and advised agencies on rulemaking. Longest also negotiated and led the state’s implementation of two multimillion dollar settlement agreements aimed at reducing the adverse impacts from swine farming in North Carolina.

Since coming to Duke, Longest has served as the founding Director of the Environmental Law and Policy Clinic, a joint project of Duke Law School and the Nicholas School of the Environment. The Environmental Law and Policy Clinic operates as a live client clinic out of offices in the Duke Law School building in Durham, N.C. Students work under direct supervision of Longest and Supervising Attorney Michelle Nowlin.