Conservation Crusader

Those familiar picturesque backdrops surrounded Zeeh in college as he received his undergraduate degree from his home state at the University of Utah. While studying humanities and mass communications there, he was on the debate team, with one of his topics including renewable energy policy. After he graduated, he thought law school might be a natural extension of that interest for him.

“I really enjoyed the debate team, truth finding, and competition. Law school seemed like a logical, adult choice for me,” Zeeh said.

He had never traveled to Pennsylvania but applied and was accepted to Duquesne Kline School of Law. “I thought it would be my best opportunity to pursue a legal education. It seemed like the right move, even though before that I did not even know where Pittsburgh was on a map,” Zeeh said. 

While Pittsburgh’s surroundings are starkly different than Utah’s, he immediately found charm in the city’s towering backdrop and he enjoys its accessibility.

“I really like Pittsburgh, especially the cityscape in the summer. I love the walkability here and living downtown. I can walk to the courthouse, and the Environmental Hearing Board is within walking distance. Duquesne Kline is just around the corner from me,” he said. 

Zeeh acclimated himself to city life and immersed himself in learning the law. As his studies progressed, Zeeh gained a deeper understanding of something he always cherished—the environment—and its relation to the law. His desire to safeguard it increased. 

“It is good to protect the environment and that has always been important to me. I knew I wanted to be an advocate for it. There is a constitutional right to protect it, though, and I did not really know about that aspect of it before law school, but that made it even more important to me,” Zeeh said.

Renewing his longstanding passion for the environment, he channeled that energy into acquiring practical environmental law experience while earning his degree. 

He spent his rising 2L summer in 2024 interning with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). After that internship concluded, Zeeh continued to increase his environmental law knowledge, interning during fall of 2024 and the summer of 2025 with Fair Shake Environmental Legal Services, a nonprofit organization that believes all people and communities should be able to access the tools of change and that everyone should be able to make decisions about the natural resources— air, water, and land— where they live, work, and play 

Zeeh is currently interning this semester at the Environmental Hearing Board.  “I went from the Enforcer at the Dept of Enviro Protection, the advocate at Fair Shake, to the decision makers at the Environmental Hearing Board,” he said.

Likewise active in sustainability at Duquesne Kline School of Law, Zeeh joined the Environmental Law Society and is currently the executive editor of the Duquesne Kline Energy & Environmental Law Journal (Joule).

Zeeh has found his niche at Duquesne Kline School of Law, matching his environmental activism with a legal education that emphasizes ethics.

“The public interest side of the law is important and the effects spill over to the day-to-day class. You get a good education, walking a fine line advocating for community understanding. The community and the culture are supportive,” he said.

As for his plans after graduation, Zeeh wants to remain in environmental law in a place he has surprisingly discovered to be home. 

“I want to be an environmental advocate. The mission work I have done has scratched the itch for me, and I want to stick with it. I really like it here, too, and want to try to stay in Pennsylvania after graduation,” he said.