The Environmental and Social Governance Research Group is proud to host Dr Achinthi Vithanage (from Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University) where she will present on ‘The Evolution of the Role of the Lawyer in Promoting Environmental Sustainability: Our profession’s role in innovation, regulation, and responsibility’.
This is an online and in-person seminar.
Abstract
In a time of environmental crises, environmental sustainability is no longer the purview of solely environmental lawyers. All lawyers must be on the frontlines of climate action. As officers of the courts with a duty to promote justice, all lawyers have an obligation to use their skills in service of addressing the climate crisis. Bar associations and law societies worldwide are beginning to recognize this and are leading collaborative efforts to build this awareness and momentum.
This presentation will discuss some of those efforts and how together they are promoting an evolution in the role of the legal profession.
Seminar details
Date: Wednesday 21 August 2024
Time: 12.30pm to 1.30pm AEST
Location: Owen J. Wordsworth (OJW) Room, S Block, Level 12, Gardens Point Campus, 2 George Street, Brisbane
Catering: A light lunch will follow the seminar at 1.30pm to 2pm
Cost: Free
Dr Achinthi Vithanage
Achinthi Vithanage is the Associate Director of Environmental Law Programs, Professor of Law for Designated Service in Environmental Law at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University. Prior to this, she was a Visiting Associate Professor of Law and the first Environmental and Energy Law Fellow with an international law background at the George Washington University Law School (GW Law). Professor Vithanage was born in Sri Lanka, lived in the United Arab Emirates, practiced as an attorney in the state of New South Wales (NSW) in Australia, and undertook tertiary studies in Australia, Japan, China, Spain, and the United States, providing her a unique international perspective. She also worked at the Energy & Water Ombudsman of NSW and practiced in the corporate, commercial, and property legal sectors in Sydney, Australia.
Achinthi serves on the Governing Council of the American Bar Association’s Section on Environment Energy & Resources (SEER), is the founding Co-Chair of the Environmental Law Society Network, and a former Co-Chair of the International Law Committee. She serves on the Secretariat to the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Academy of Environmental Law, is a member of the World Commission on Environmental Law, and an originating member of the International Association of Energy Law, a global network of early career energy law professors. Most recently, she attended COP28 and the 2024 Bonn Climate Change Conference as the ABA Delegate and serves on the Editorial Advisory Board for the Environmental Law Institute’s Environmental Forum publication.
