New Director for IELP Announced

Professor Erica Lyman (’05) will lead Lewis & Clark Law School’s International Environmental Law Project (IELP) as of September 1, 2019.  Professor Chris Wold, who founded IELP in 1994, and served as its director until now, will continue to be involved while transitioning to a larger classroom role. 

“I look forward to leading IELP and continuing to build on Chris’s accomplishments,” Lyman stated. “Chris had the tenacity and vision to build an international environmental legal practice which is daunting in and of itself, but he did it and, while doing so, made space for students, including myself in 2004, to work with him and learn from him. IELP is fortunate that Chris will remain an active practitioner and trusted advisor.”  

Lyman is a 2005 graduate of Lewis & Clark Law School and joined IELP as its first staff attorney the same year. Aside from her work with IELP, Professor Lyman has taught International Environmental Law and International Wildlife Law. She also regularly publishes in the field of international environmental law. 

“I’m delighted to pass the mantle of leadership to Erica,” said Wold. “Erica has been absolutely critical to IELP’s success during the past 14 years, and I have no doubt it will continue to be successful under her leadership”

As a staff attorney for IELP, Lyman has worked to promote consideration of climate change on World Heritage sites; served as a legal advisor for Palau and the Maldives during the climate change negotiations, including during the adoption of the Paris Agreement; crafted the legal arguments that eventually ended Japanese high seas whaling; and is currently working in 15 African countries on evaluating and drafting legislation to combat wildlife trafficking. Lyman plans to continue to bring a wide range of international wildlife law cases and projects to the clinic, as well as support the growth of the clinic’s focus into additional areas of law.”

Wold’s accomplishments while serving as director of IELP include assisting in the development of compliance regimes for the Convention on Migratory Species and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, preparing the legal opinion that convinced Japan and Korea that they were required to submit vessel-specific fisheries data to the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission, and drafting a sea turtle conservation treaty now implemented by Costa Rica and Panama. 

Wold is teaching International Environmental Law, Ocean and Coastal Law, and Public International Law and is considered a foremost expert on international trade issues. 

IELP is one of several clinics at the Lewis & Clark Law School. and the only one in which students engage in an international environmental legal practice under the supervision of faculty. It focuses on today’s most challenging global issues, including climate change, biodiversity conservation, oceans and fisheries, and trade and the environment. Each year up to 10 students participate in the clinic, conducting research affecting international environmental law and policy.