Director
Stepan Wood
Professor Wood obtained his LLB from Osgoode Hall, after which he served as a law clerk to the late Justice John Sopinka of the Supreme Court of Canada and practised law with White & Case in New York. He holds an SJD from Harvard Law School.
Prior to joining the Allard School of Law in 2017, Professor Wood was Professor and York Research Chair in Environmental Law and Justice at Osgoode Hall Law School, where he was also Editor-in-Chief of the Osgoode Hall Law Journal, Coordinator of the York University JD/Master in Environmental Studies joint program, and founding co-director of Osgoode’s Environmental Justice and Sustainability Clinical Program. Professor Wood is a founding co-chair of the Willms & Shier Environmental Law Moot.
FORMER DIRECTORS
Sara Ghebremusse
Dr. Sara Ghebremusse is an Assistant Professor at the University of British Columbia’s Peter A. Allard School of Law. From 2023–2025, she held the Chair in Mining Law and Finance at the Faculty of Law, University of Western Ontario. She holds degrees from Osgoode Hall Law School, the University of Toronto, the University of Ottawa, Carleton University, and the University of Alberta.
Dr. Ghebremusse’s research and teaching focus on mining law and governance, law and development, transnational law, and business and human rights, with particular attention to the interests of Indigenous peoples and mining-affected communities. She is the current Academic Director of the Future Minerals Initiative, a collaborative research network of mining scholars at UBC. Dr. Ghebremusse is also a Principal Co-Investigator of the Canada Climate Law Initiative, a joint project between the Peter A. Allard School of Law and Osgoode Hall Law School that advances director knowledge on the latest in climate science and fiduciary obligation. She serves as a board member with the Justice and Corporate Accountability Project, a non-profit providing legal support to mining-affected communities in Latin America and Africa, and is a member of the Third World Approaches to International Law Editorial Collective.
Karin Mickelson
Karin Mickelson joined the Faculty as Assistant Professor in 1991 and was promoted to Associate Professor in 1998. She has taught in the areas of international law, international environmental law, real property, environmental law and legal theory, and has supervised and co-supervised graduate students in a wide range of areas including international environmental law, international legal theory and international human rights. She has also served as the faculty advisor to UBC teams participating in the Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition.
Professor Mickelson research activities have focused on the South-North dimension of international law; for example, she has explored the possibility of identifying a distinctive Third World approach to international law in "Rhetoric and Rage: Third World Voices in International Legal Discourse" (1998) 16 Wisconsin International Law Journal 353-419, and has analyzed the failure of international environmental law to respond to the concerns of the South in "South, North, International Environmental Law, and International Environmental Lawyers" (2000) 11 Yearbook of International Environmental Law 52-81.
Her current research focuses on the impact of developing countries on the evolution of international environmental law. She is also a contributor to leading Canadian casebooks on international law and environmental law.
COORDINATOR
Michael Girum
Michael Girum is a JD candidate (2027) at Allard. Prior to law school, Michael completed a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) in finance at the University of Calgary, where he completed research studies on sustainability education in business schools. Outside of school, Michael worked as the co-chair of the Environment & Climate Change Canada Youth Council, where he led a group of ten young Canadians in providing policy feedback to the federal Minister of Environment & Climate Change.
PAST COORDINATORS
Rebecca Smith (2025-2026)
Rebecca is a second-year JD student at the Peter A. Allard School of Law and currently serves as the Coordinator for the Centre for Law and the Environment for the 2025-2026 academic year. Before attending law school, she earned an Honours Bachelor of Arts & Science and Environment & Society, with a minor in Indigenous Studies from McMaster University. Rebecca is interested in environmental and Aboriginal law and is involved with the Environmental Law Group and the Indigenous Law Students' Association at Allard. Rebecca completed ĆELÁṈENEȽ: A Field Course in the Re-emergence of W̱SÁNEĆ Law, where she engaged in land-based learning and working on legal projects and research within the W̱SÁNEĆ community on Vancouver Island.
Isabella Schopper (2024-2025)
Isabella is a JD Candidate (2026) at the Allard School of Law. Prior to attending Allard, she obtained a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from the University of Victoria.
Isabella is deeply committed to promoting the rights and welfare of animals. She aims to channel this passion for advocacy through her roles at the Centre, striving for both environmental and animal justice.
Kylie Schatz (2023-2024)
Kylie is a JD Candidate (2025) at the Allard School of Law. Prior to attending Allard, she obtained a degree in International Relations from UBC.
Kylie is interested in the role of law in working towards environmental justice and reconciliation.
- Avery Pasternak (2022-2023)
- Ciara Dixon (2021-2022)
- Jianna Faner (Summer 2021)
- Veronica Philal (2020-2021)
- Sophie Harrison (Summer 2020)
