Highly regarded nationally in the field of environmental law, Want is an associate professor at the Charleston School of Law in South Carolina. Prior to joining the faculty in 2005, he had a solo practice in Charleston, doing work in environmental law throughout the country. Previously, he was a senior trial attorney for nine years in the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the Justice Department in Washington, D.C. He has also been staff counsel for the National Wildlife Federation and an attorney for the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. He taught environmental law as a visiting professor at Maryland Law School and as an adjunct professor at George Washington Law School and was a visiting scholar at the Environmental Law Reporter.

Want is a l970 graduate of Yale Law School, where he published in the Yale Law Journal as a student, and a l967 summa cum laude graduate of Washington and Lee University, where he was secretary of the Student Body. In 1989, he was awarded the Lyndhurst prize, worth $120,000, for his contributions to environmental protection. Want is listed in the Best Lawyers in America compilation. He was a founding board member of the environmental organizations Southern Environmental Law Center and South Carolina Conservation League.