Professor Camila Bustos Discusses Her Organization, Law Students for Climate Change

Legal Tenzer: Casual Conversations on Noteworthy Legal Topics

In This Episode...
Professor Camila Bustos of Pace Law School discusses the important work Law Students for Climate Accountability. When we think about law students and climate change, we think about student advocacy work. The organization, Law Students for Climate Change, is a bit different. LS4CA harnesses the power of law students in their decision-making process when it comes to planning their careers. The group's mission is to inform and encourage law students to accept jobs with law firms that have demonstrated a commitment to represent firms that help the planet, not firms that represent fossil fuel companies. You can learn more about the mission here. And check out their 2023 Climate Change Score Card here.
About Our Guest...
Camila Bustos joined the Elisabeth Haub School of Law faculty in 2023. Prior to joining the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University, Professor Bustos was a Visiting Assistant Professor of Human Rights at Trinity College and a Clinical Supervisor in human rights practice at the University Network for Human Rights. She also served as a term law clerk to Justice Steven D. Ecker of the Connecticut Supreme Court and as a consultant with the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP).
Professor Bustos is a graduate from Yale Law School, where she received the Francis Wayland Prize and was a Switzer Foundation Fellow and a Paul & Daisy Soros Fellow. During law school, she worked at the Center for Climate Integrity, the Climate Litigation Network, and EarthRights International. Professor Bustos also co-founded Law Students for Climate Accountability, a national law student-led movement pushing the legal industry to phase out fossil fuel representation and support a just, livable future. She was also the co-chair of the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project at Yale, and co-chair of the Women of Color Collective. Prior to law school, she worked as a human rights researcher at the Center for the Study of Law, Justice, and Society (Dejusticia) in Colombia.
Professor Bustos’s writing has appeared in The Guardian, the Yale Journal of Law and Feminism, the ABA Human Rights Magazine, and the first legal casebook on Earth Law. Her research and scholarship focuses on human rights law, environmental law, international environmental law, and climate change law. Her forthcoming co-authored article, Climate Migration and Displacement: A Case Study of Puerto Rican Women in Connecticut, will be published in the Connecticut Law Review. She is a frequent presenter on climate displacement, human rights, climate law, climate ethics, environmental justice, and more. Currently, she serves on the Advisory Board of Law Students for Climate Accountability, and she is a Board Member of Breach Collective.