This week, Hillary Aidun joins the Sabin Center as the 2019-2021 Climate Law Fellow. Hillary’s work will focus on domestic and international climate change litigation, regulation of greenhouse gas emissions, and assessment and disclosure of climate risk, among other things.
Hillary previously served as a law clerk to the Honorable Robert N. Chatigny of the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut and the Honorable Barbara A. Lenk of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts. Hillary earned her J.D. at Yale Law School, where she was a founding member of the Environmental Justice Clinic and participated in the Environmental Protection Clinic. Before law school Hillary studied conservation efforts in the Amazon Rainforest as a Fulbright Fellow. She holds a B.A. from Middlebury College.
Amy Turner also joins the Sabin Center as a senior fellow for our newly launched Cities Climate Law Initiative. This new effort will work with city legal departments and sustainability offices, and the networks that link them together, to provide key resources to efficiently and effectively address legal questions confronting the urban climate transition. This initiative is in partnership with the Urban Sustainability Directors Network and is generously supported by the Kresge Foundation.
Prior to her work with the Sabin Center, Amy was the executive director and a co-founder of the NYC Climate Action Alliance, and she continues to serve on its board of directors. She practiced environmental and transactional law for ten years at Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP, Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP and in solo practice. Amy graduated from Middlebury College, magna cum laude, and from Harvard Law School, where she was an articles and technical editor for the Harvard Environmental Law Review. She currently serves as co-chair for the New York City Bar Association’s Committee on Environmental Law and as secretary of the board of directors for the Brooklyn Greenway Initiative.
Finally, we welcome Moira K. O’Neill as an associate research scholar, specializing in local government law, land use, and city planning.
At Columbia, Moira teaches Community Development and Local Government Law & Politics in the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation. She also holds an academic appointment at UC-Berkeley’s Center for Law, Energy, and the Environment. Moira’s research and teaching build on more than a decade of professional experience in legal practice and consulting for public entities. Her former clients include cities, housing authorities, school districts, and public universities throughout California. Her legal experience also includes clerking for the Honorable Saundra Brown Armstrong of the United States District Court, Northern District of California, and working as a law clerk in the office of the Environment and Natural Resources Unit, Civil Division, Department of Justice. Moira received her juris doctor, Order of the Coif, from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law in 2006.
We are thrilled to have Hillary, Amy, and Moira on board, and look forward to sharing their work soon.
