This panel showcases four exceptional GW Environmental Law Fellows who have pursued careers in domestic and international environmental law. The panelists will share highlights of their work in their current positions and deliver presentations on recent or work-in-progress scholarship on climate and energy justice and environmental human rights issues.

This event will be in-person at GW Law's Burns Moot Courtroom as well as streamed online via Zoom.

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Fellow Bios

Nicholas Bryner

Nicholas Bryner holds the John P. Laborde Endowed Professorship in Energy Law at Louisiana State University’s Paul M. Hebert Law Center. Professor Bryner teaches a variety of courses in the areas of environmental law, natural resources law, and administrative law. His areas of research include international and comparative environmental law, with a special focus on Latin America; public lands law; and air pollution control law. Prior to joining LSU, Professor Bryner was an Emmett/Frankel Fellow in Environmental Law and Policy at the UCLA School of Law and a Visiting Associate Professor and Environmental Law Fellow at the George Washington University Law School. He holds a JD and LLM in Energy and Environmental Law from the George Washington University Law School, an MA from the George Washington University Elliott School of International Affairs, and a BA from the University of Utah.

Giovanna E. Gismondi

Giovanna E. Gismondi is the Environmental Law Fellow and Visiting Associate Professor at the George Washington University Law School. Professor Gismondi teaches and writes in the areas of international environmental law, international human rights law, and international dispute resolution. Her latest book, International Environmental Law and International Human Rights Law in Investment Treaty Arbitration (Wolters Kluwer, 2023), explores the role of environmental and human rights law in International Investment Law and arbitration. Professor Gismondi has published articles at the intersection of international environmental law, international indigenous peoples law, and international investment law in peer-review journals. Her current research explores recent developments in relation to the protection of the environment in the case law of the Inter-American Human Rights System. She holds an LLM and SJD from Georgetown University Law Center, and a law degree from Universidad de Lima.

Caitlin McCoy

Caitlin McCoy is a Legal Officer at the Commission for Environmental Cooperation in Montreal. She was previously a Staff Attorney at the Environmental & Energy Law Program at Harvard Law School. She was also an Environmental Law Program Fellow at the George Washington University Law School. Before GW, she was the Legal Director of an environmental non-profit organization in Southwestern Pennsylvania. Caitlin has worked on a range of issues at national and state levels in the United States and at an international level. Much of her work has centered on energy, air quality, and climate change with an awareness of impacts on low-income communities. Caitlin earned an LLM in International Environmental Law from the George Washington University Law School, a JD from Washington University School of Law, and a BA from the University of California, Berkeley.

Achinthi Vithanage

Achinthi Vithanage is Associate Director of Environmental Law Programs and Professor of Law for Designated Service in Environmental Law at Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University. Prior to joining Haub Law, Professor Vithanage was a Visiting Associate Professor of Law and the first Environmental Law Fellow with an international law background at The George Washington University Law School. At GW Law, Professor Vithanage taught International Environmental Law, Global & Comparative Environmental Law, Environmental Lawyering, and coached students in international environmental law moot court competitions. She also taught Introduction to Environmental Law at GWU's Trachtenberg School of Public Policy & Public Administration, and Introduction to Sustainability, an interdisciplinary course based on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, at GWU. She teaches a similar range of courses at Haub Law. Born in Sri Lanka, Professor Vithanage 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. She also worked at the Energy & Water Ombudsman of NSW and practiced in the corporate, commercial, and property legal sectors in Sydney, Australia. Professor Vithanage has been recognized as one of the country’s leading environmental and energy lawyers in LawDragon’s inaugural list in 2021 and was subsequently listed in LawDragon’s 500 Leading Environmental Lawyers Guides for 2023 and 2024. An S.J.D. candidate at GW Law, she holds an LL.M. in Environmental Law from Haub Law and an LL.B. and B.A. from the University of New South Wales.

Moderator

Randall S. Abate, Assistant Dean for Environmental Law Studies, George Washington University Law School