Jody Freeman (born 1964) is a Canadian-born American legal scholar at

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, Harvard Law School is the oldest law school in continuous operation in the United ...

administrative law Administrative law is a division of law governing the activities of government agency, executive branch agencies of government. Administrative law includes executive branch rulemaking (executive branch rules are generally referred to as "regul ...

and

environmental law Environmental laws are laws that protect the environment. The term "environmental law" encompasses treaties, statutes, regulations, conventions, and policies designed to protect the natural environment and manage the impact of human activitie ...

. From 2009 to 2010, she was Counselor for Energy and Climate Change in the Obama White House. Freeman has been a member of the Administrative Conference of the United States, the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

, and the

Council on Foreign Relations The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an American think tank focused on Foreign policy of the United States, U.S. foreign policy and international relations. Founded in 1921, it is an independent and nonpartisan 501(c)(3) nonprofit organi ...

. She was also an independent director of

ConocoPhillips ConocoPhillips Company is an American multinational corporation engaged in hydrocarbon exploration and production. It is based in the Energy Corridor district of Houston, Texas. The company has operations in 15 countries and has production in t ...

and a member of the

Electric Power Research Institute EPRI, is an American independent, nonprofit organization that conducts research and development related to the generation, delivery, and use of electricity to help address challenges in the energy industry, including reliability, efficiency, affo ...

's advisory council.

Early life and education

Freeman was raised in

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

. She earned a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

degree from

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

in 1985, and a

Bachelor of Laws A Bachelor of Laws (; LLB) is an undergraduate law degree offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree and serves as the first professional qualification for legal practitioners. This degree requires the study of core legal subje ...

degree from the University of Toronto in 1989. She went on to

Master of Laws A Master of Laws (M.L. or LL.M.; Latin: ' or ') is a postgraduate academic degree, pursued by those either holding an undergraduate academic law degree, a professional law degree, or an undergraduate degree in another subject. In many jurisdi ...

and

Doctor of Juridical Science A Doctor of Juridical Science (SJD; ), or a Doctor of the Science of Law (JSD; ), is a research doctorate degree in law that is equivalent to a Ph.D. degree. In most countries, it is the most advanced law degree that can be earned. Australia ...

degrees from

, which she received in 1991 and 1995, respectively.

Career

In 1990–91, she clerked at the

Ontario Court of Appeal The Court of Appeal for Ontario (frequently mistakenly referred to as the Ontario Court of Appeal) (ONCA is the abbreviation for its neutral citation) is the appellate court for the province of Ontario, Canada. The seat of the court is Osgoode H ...

for a panel of judges including future

Canadian Supreme Court The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC; , ) is the Supreme court, highest court in the Court system of Canada, judicial system of Canada. It comprises List of justices of the Supreme Court of Canada, nine justices, whose decisions are the ultimate a ...

Justice and UN High Commissioner

Louise Arbour Louise Arbour, (born February 10, 1947) is a Canadian lawyer, prosecutor and jurist. Arbour was the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, a former justice of the Supreme Court of Canada and the Court of Appeal for Ontario and a former Chief Pr ...

. From 1995 to 2005, Freeman was a Professor of Law at

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

, where she co-founded the Environmental Law Program and was an award-winning teacher. From 2001 to 2004, Freeman also taught environmental law and served as Associate Dean for Law and Policy at the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management at

UCSB The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Tracing its roots back to 1891 as an independent teachers college, UCSB joine ...

. She has been a visiting professor at Georgetown Law Center,

New York University Law School The New York University School of Law (NYU Law) is the law school of New York University, a private research university in New York City. Established in 1835, it was the first law school established in New York City and is the oldest survivin ...

, and

Stanford Law School Stanford Law School (SLS) is the Law school in the United States, law school of Stanford University, a Private university, private research university near Palo Alto, California. Established in 1893, Stanford Law had an acceptance rate of 6.28% i ...

. In 2005, Freeman joined the

faculty. She was one of a number of hires made during

Elena Kagan Elena Kagan ( ; born April 28, 1960) is an American lawyer who serves as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. She was Elena Kagan Supreme Court nomination ...

's tenure as Dean. In 2006, she founded Harvard's Environmental and Energy Law and Policy program, a legal "think tank" for climate and energy policy analysis, and established an environmental law clinic. In 2006, Freeman authored an amicus brief on behalf of former United States Secretary of State

Madeleine Albright Madeleine Jana Korbel Albright (born Marie Jana Körbelová, later Korbelová; May 15, 1937 – March 23, 2022) was an American diplomat and political science, political scientist who served as the 64th United States Secretary of State, United S ...

in '' Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency'', the global warming case decided by the Supreme Court in 2007. From 2009–2010, she served as Counselor for Energy and Climate Change in the Obama White House. In 2015, she and her colleague Richard Lazarus co-authored an amicus brief on behalf of William D. Ruckelshaus and William K. Reilly, former Administrators of the

Environmental Protection Agency Environmental Protection Agency may refer to the following government organizations: * Environmental Protection Agency (Queensland), Australia * Environmental Protection Agency (Ghana) * Environmental Protection Agency (Ireland) * Environmenta ...

, supporting the government in the litigation over the Obama administration's

Clean Power Plan The Clean Power Plan was an Presidency of Barack Obama, Obama administration policy aimed at combating climate change that was first proposed by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in June 201 ...

Board service and memberships

Freeman currently serves on the Climate Advisory Board of Norges Bank Investment Management, the asset manager of the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund. She has served as a member of the Administrative Conference of the United States, a body that advises the federal government on how to improve the regulatory and administrative process. She is a member of the

, of the American College of Environmental Lawyers, and of the

. Freeman formerly served as an independent director of

, and as a member of the advisory council of the

ConocoPhillips

In light of the approval of the Willow project and her research grant from Harvard's Salata Institute in 2023 to review corporate net zero targets, scrutiny of Freeman's role as an independent director of the ConocoPhillips board increased. ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' described emails allegedly showing that she had facilitated a meeting between ConocoPhillips executives and a director at the

Securities and Exchange Commission The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street crash of 1929. Its primary purpose is to enforce laws against market m ...

(SEC) in 2021 without disclosing her conflict of interest in a way that fully complied with university policy. The Harvard Faculty Divest steering committee, a group of professors seeking to end fossil fuel use, sent a letter to president

Claudine Gay Claudine Gay (born August 4, 1970) is an American political scientist who is the Wilbur A. Cowett Professor of Government and of African and African-American Studies at Harvard University. Her research focuses on American political behavior, inc ...

and vice provost for climate and sustainability

James H. Stock James Harold Stock (born December 24, 1955) is an American economist, professor of economics, and vice provost for climate and sustainability at Harvard University. He is the co-author of ''Introduction to Econometrics'', a leading undergraduat ...

expressing their concerns about a potential conflict between Freeman's responsibility to ConocoPhillips and the university's climate commitments. The student activist group Fossil Fuel Divest Harvard published an open letter asking her to resign from the company's board. The group acknowledged Freeman's climate work but criticized her effectiveness in "helping reform ConocoPhillips from the inside" and specifically referenced the Willow project. Additionally, a group of former students from one of her classes at Harvard Law School wrote an open letter to Freeman. While stating they admired her "proven dedication to achieving

environmental justice Environmental justice is a social movement that addresses injustice that occurs when poor or marginalized communities are harmed by hazardous waste, resource extraction, and other land uses from which they do not benefit. The movement has gene ...

", they asked her to sever her relationship with ConocoPhillips. Freeman defended her position, calling her engagement with ConocoPhillips "positive" in helping move the industry towards a low-carbon future. She explained that she had made an introduction to ConocoPhillips on behalf of her Harvard colleague John Coates, who was an incoming SEC director and sought input from ConocoPhillips to educate himself on industry views as he addressed climate issues at the Commission. Coates issued a statement in which he stated that he knew about Freeman's role at ConocoPhillips, that he initiated the conversation, and that Freeman did not "lobby" him or other SEC personnel. Freeman said her actions did not violate rules and that her role at ConocoPhillips was "common knowledge" at Harvard. Her Harvard colleague Richard Lazarus agreed, saying there was "absolutely no conflict of interest" with her board role.

Norm Eisen Norman L. Eisen (born November 11, 1960) is an American attorney, author, and former diplomat. He is a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution, a CNN legal analyst, and the co-founder of the States United Democracy Cente ...

, a government ethics specialist with the

Brookings Institution The Brookings Institution, often stylized as Brookings, is an American think tank that conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in economics (and tax policy), metropolitan policy, governance, foreign policy, global econo ...

, told ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'': "From an ethics perspective nobody has pointed to a specific violation here. It's ethical. Whether it's virtuous or not is a genuine question for other authorities to debate." Freeman resigned from the ConocoPhillips board in August 2023. In a statement, she said she would focus on her research at Harvard and pursue new opportunities, including a book about environmental challenges and ideas for further progress.

Selected bibliography

Co-author

* * * *

Co-editor

* *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Freeman, Jody 1964 births American women lawyers American lawyers Canadian emigrants to the United States Harvard Law School alumni Harvard Law School faculty Living people Academics from Vancouver Stanford University alumni University of Toronto alumni American women legal scholars American legal scholars American women academics 21st-century American women