Speakers International Conference on Human Rights and Environmental Protection
James Thornton is the founding CEO of ClientEarth. A member of the bars of New York, California and the Supreme Court of the United States, James founded the Los Angeles office of NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council). In 2007 he took that experience of leading a non-profit environmental law group to Europe and founded ClientEarth. With offices in London, Brussels, Warsaw, Berlin, Beijing and Los Angeles, ClientEarth also works in five countries in Africa.
Using corporate law to address the climate crisis, ClientEarth is developing a truly global reach. It works with investors to move markets toward renewable energy, stops coal fired power plants, and uses the courts to force governments to clean the air. In China, ClientEarth has facilitated 48,000 environmental enforcement cases. Among James’s many awards in the business and legal sectors is the Financial Times Special (Lifetime) Achievement Award for Innovation in Law.