ABOUT US
Since 1992, ELF has advanced environmental justice across the UK by helping communities access the legal support they need to protect and restore nature. We also work to strengthen the environmental justice sector and ensure that community voices are heard by decision-makers.
We prioritise supporting socially and economically disadvantaged communities who would otherwise lack the resources, information, or power to challenge environmental harm.
We are proud to have His Majesty King Charles III as our President.
WHAT WE DO
Our work is driven by three strategic priorities:
1. Helping communities understand and use the law
We help individuals and communities access free legal advice to help them tackle environmental harm — from sewage pollution to harmful development and the destruction of vital ecosystems. We help people understand the law and engage effectively in consultations, negotiations and litigation with powerful actors.
2. Building a stronger environmental justice ecosystem
We strengthen the environmental justice ecosystem by convening three membership networks. Our professional membership network includes over 150 barristers, solicitors, and environmental experts, and unlocks up to £1 million in pro bono support each year. Our university network spans more than 20 UK law schools, contributing to casework, research, and the development of future environmental lawyers. We are also building a growing community network, connecting and supporting individuals and grassroots groups affected by environmental harm.
3. Ensuring communities have a voice in decision-making
We work to ensure that communities can influence the laws, policies, and decisions that shape their environment. We do this both by supporting meaningful participation in environmental decision-making at the local level, and by using the insights generated from across all of our casework to advocate for systemic changes to the laws and policies governing nature and limiting access to justice.
To find out how to access our legal support services, please click here.
Our Team
Robin Pierro, CEO
For the past two decades, Robin Pierro has worked across the UK and globally to advance human rights and environmental justice.
Prior to joining the Environment Law Foundation, Robin was Managing Director of Koreo, where she led the organisation through a period of transformation. Previously, Robin was the inaugural Director of Communications and Marketing at the Fund for Global Human Rights, tasked with building the organisation’s communications function and brand from the ground up and helping to amplify the work of environmental and human rights defenders in more than 50 countries. Her work has also included included leadership roles with the Mannifera Funding Collective and the Reichstein Foundation, where she supported organisational strategy, strengthened brand visibility, and advanced power-shifting approaches to grantmaking. Earlier in her career, with Journalists for Human Rights, she launched and directed award-winning programmes that strengthened independent media and human rights education globally.
Running through all of Robin’s work is a deep commitment to ensuring that people have the knowledge, resources, and power to stand up for their rights and influence the policies and practices that shape their lives.
Emma Montlake, Director of Casework
Emma Montlake is ELF’s Director of Casework and has direct responsibility for the management of the case work.
Having trained as a lawyer Emma worked in commercial property for ten years but gave up her role in commercial practice so she could intern with ELF. After 3 months most fortuitously a job came up at ELF which Emma took. That was in 2006.
Emma is passionate about nature and wildlife and assisting ELF grassroot communities, both human and non-human. She takes inspiration from the local people she works with through ELF, who seek to protect their environment from threats faced, and assist them navigate the complex legal technicalities, processes and lack of resources.
Emma is also a director at Love Our Ouse (LOO) and sees synergies between the work she does at ELF and LOO especially with the rights of nature movement in the UK. She is also a founder member of Green United. Helping school children in Lewes take environmental action.
Tom Brenan, Director of Education and Policy
Tom is also ELF’s Director of Education & Policy and is responsible for ELF’s University network and Young ELF programme.
A qualified solicitor, Tom first connected with ELF as in intern in 2005 and has worked in a variety of roles for the organisation over the years. He has also worked with the National Trust, the Gaia Foundation, WinACC, and the Biodynamic Land Trust.
A keen permaculturalist, grower, and Rights of Nature advocate, Tom seeks to tread a more Earth-centred path. He maintains one hand in the soil and the other in the law.
Tanvi Sengupta, Paralegal
Tanvi is ELF’s paralegal, and assists with responding to enquiries from communities across the UK facing environmental harm. After graduating with a BA in Law from the University of Cambridge in 2023, she worked as a paralegal at a public environmental law firm and volunteered at several environmental nonprofits prior to joining ELF.
Outside of work she is interested in understanding the environment through an interdisciplinary lens and spends her time studying ecology and environmental philosophy. She is currently based in Glasgow, where she forms part of an art collective which aims to create art and engage communities with concepts and ideas about Scottish shorelines and our relationship to nature.
Renee Karunungan, Development and Communications Officer
Renee has over a decade’s experience on environmental and climate communications with different charities, non-profits, and thinktanks in the UK and internationally. She finished her MA in Media and International Development at the University of East Anglia and PhD in Political Communication at Loughborough University. Renee’s work experience spans digital media, press relations, science communications, and policy advocacy. She believes in the power of community driven storytelling in humanising environmental and climate issues.
Renee’s recent interests also include decolonising climate communications as a method to inclusive and impactful communications. On other days, Renee is a children’s books author writing about the environment.
How it works
When communities face environmental harm — from sewage pollution and toxic waste dumping to unlawful development that threatens the destruction of precious ecosystems — they often face powerful institutions and complex legal and regulatory systems in order to pursue justice. Many feel overwhelmed, unheard, or unsure where to turn.
That’s where the Environmental Law Foundation comes in.
We help grassroots communities access the legal expertise they need to protect their environment and assert their rights. We ensure people are informed, supported, and don’t have to stand alone.
Our Approach
We listen first
Communities write or call into our helpline with concerns about what is happening to their local environment. This can include a wide range of environmental issues, from the quality of the air they breathe to the condition of waterways near their home, to the protection of local wildlife, green spaces, and land. We follow up every enquiry we receive to ask for further information.
We unlock free, expert legal support
We then take the time to understand each situation and assess how the law can be used as a tool for change. We provide support through our in-house team, and we also rely on free legal advice from our national network of over 150 pro bono barristers, solicitors, and technical experts. Each year, we respond to over 350 requests for legal support — help that would otherwise be inaccessible or unaffordable.
We support communities through complex processes
Beyond accessing legal advice, we help communities access the support they need to engage effectively with complex legal and regulatory process, including consultations and negotiations with regulators, corporations and government. This ensures their voices are heard in decisions that affect their lives, land and waters.
We build strength through connection and learning
We manage and convene a number of membership networks, including a network of community partners, enabling peer-to-peer learning and solidarity between groups facing similar challenges. We also manage a network of environmental lawyers, who provide up to £1 million in pro bono legal support each year. And we manage a network of 20 university law schools, contributing to casework, research, and the training of future environmental lawyers.
We turn community experience into systemic change
Insights from our casework feed into research, policy advocacy and law reform. By grounding our work in lived experiences and real cases, we help shape stronger environmental protections and improve access to justice — from advancing the Aarhus Convention to supporting Rights of Nature initiatives.
Our work combines immediate, practical support with long-term systemic change.
Your support makes environmental justice possible
Every year, communities across the UK come to us because they feel powerless in the face of environmental harm. With your support, we can ensure they are met with expertise, solidarity and hope — not barriers.
Funding the Environmental Law Foundation means:
- More communities accessing justice when their environment is under threat
- More pro bono legal support unlocked, maximising the impact of every pound donated
- Stronger environmental protections, informed by lived experience and grounded in evidence
- Fairer laws and systems, where people, not just powerful interests, can hold decision-makers to account
Our unique model unlocks up to £1 million in pro bono legal support each year, multiplying the value of philanthropic investment and ensuring resources reach where they are most needed.
Our trustees
Our board of trustees work voluntarily to make sure we’re doing all we can to reach and help the voices of ordinary people to be heard and respected. ELF is both a charity and a limited company and all trustees are also directors.
Richard Wald KC
Barrister at 39 Essex Chambers and Chair of ELF
Richard Wald is an environmental, planning and public lawyer. He is and has been for the last two decades or so ranked by Chambers & Partners and the Legal 500 in the categories of Environmental Law, Planning Law, Administrative and Public Law and Energy Law. Prior to taking silk he was rated by Planning Magazine Legal Survey as amongst the UK’s top planning juniors for over a decade. He has been Chair of ELF since 2022.
Carol Day
Carol Day is a solicitor who has worked in the environmental sector for over 25 years, returning to the legal practice of Leigh Day in 2013 to run their Environmental Litigation Service.
After completing an MSc in Nature Conservation (UCL), Carol started her career in the voluntary sector as a campaigner working on environmental policy. Through her employment with two County Wildlife Trusts (Warwickshire and Surrey) and a decade on planning and site safeguard work with WWF-UK, she developed an in-depth understanding of UK/EU environmental issues.
Between 2003 and 2013, Carol was coordinator of the Coalition for Access to Justice for the Environment (CAJE), a grouping of seven environmental NGOs lobbying for changes to the law for environmental cases. In 2012, Carol was also contracted as a UK expert by the European Commission to co-author a report on access to justice in the UK.
Carol has presented at numerous national and international forums, including conferences organised by the UN, European Commission, the European Environmental Bureau and Chambers. She has published articles on a number of environmental issues in the Environmental Law Review, New Law Journal, Environmental Policy and Law and Journal of Water Law. She is the co-Chair of Wildlife and Countryside Link’s Legal Strategy Group and a member of a wide variety of environmental charities.
David Hart KC
David Hart is a barrister with One Crown Office Row chambers. He practises in environmental law, professional negligence, construction and medical law. His environmental work covers the whole range of issues – litigious, regulatory, planning, public law, criminal and transactional work – over all subject areas including water (Cambridge Water), waste (SRM, REPIC), air (Coalite), odour (Dobson), noise (Dennis, Watson), fishing (cockles, polluted trout streams, and Mott about salmon licences), windfarms (Macarthur). He also has a wide contaminated land practice, including two leading appeals (Sevenoaks and Sandridge). He has appeared in courts at all levels, including the European Court of Justice (Bromley) and House of Lords (Cambridge Water, UU), and Supreme Court (E). He has particular experience of group actions, in the environmental field (7 group actions alleging odour nuisance, 4 alleging dust & noise and a petrol contamination claim) and in medical cases. He was Chair of ELF from 2016 to 2022.
Joey Tabone
Founder and CEO, Sixty7.green, consultants in Sustainability and The Climate Emergency. Trustee, Neuroblastoma Children’s Cancer Alliance. Fellow, Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce. Trustee Chair of LGBTQ+ charity in London, The Pink Singers. And Vice-Chair of ELF.
Joey is a sustainability campaigner focussing on the Climate Emergency and Responsible Business. He gained 30 years experience with the Climate Change Office in Australia, The Prince of Wales’ charitable network in the UK whilst serving several charitable boards of management. Most recently he established Sixty7.green, an organisation that brings sustainability expertise together with social justice and environmental activism. Community engagement and transformational change remain at the heart of all his work.
Amanda Carpenter
Amanda is the CEO and founder of Achill Management, a bespoke sustainability consultancy specialising in supporting organisations to reach their net zero goals. She works extensively across the legal sector, working with private practice firms and the public and criminal Bar. Achill Management host both the Legal Sustainability Alliance (LSA) and the Bar Sustainability Network. Amanda also works with Net Zero Lawyers Alliance and the newly formed Legal 1.5 group aiming to support net zero aligned legal services in line with the Paris Agreement. She is a founding trustee of 5050 Parliament and Western Front Way, as well as a trustee of Aldeburgh Jubilee Hall arts and community venue in Suffolk. She hosts the successful environmental podcast Planet Pod.
Stephanie McGibbon CEnv
Stephanie is an environmental (and town) planner (but not a lawyer). In her day job she works on environmental impact assessments, usually for developers and usually for large scale projects. Recognising the challenges that people and communities can face accessing and understanding planning proposals, Stephanie became a volunteer with ELF. Now, as a trustee, Stephanie is instrumental in shaping the future of ELF and its ongoing role in helping communities help themselves. She is also a hedgehog hero, supporting Regent’s Park’s long term survey of hedgehogs in the Park, the last remaining population in central London.
Dr Emily Barritt
Dr Emily Barritt is Senior Lecture in Environmental Law at King’s College London and a fellow at the Centre for Environment, Energy and Natural Resource Governance at the University of Cambridge. She is the author of the first monograph on the UNECE Aarhus Convention and has been cited by the Advocate General in recent jurisprudence from the Court of Justice of the European Union. Her research covers environmental justice, democracy, stewardship, climate litigation and Rights of Nature. She is the producer of a short film entitled Sentinels about climate litigation and Rights of Nature in Colombia. Dr Barritt sits on the editorial board of the Journal of Environmental Law as an Analysis Editor.
Jemima Coleman
Jemima Coleman is an experienced employment lawyer at Simmons & Simmons LLP and has been awarded a Churchill Fellowship to study Rights of Nature. She completed the Cambridge Institute of Sustainability Leadership course after being seconded to Oxfam International as Africa Counsel. She co-chairs City HR’s ESG Committee and sits on her firm’s Climate Committee. Her experience includes seven years as a non-executive board member of the Legal Services Board, the oversight regulator for legal services in England and Wales, non-executive director of Creative Access, a community interest company, providing opportunities in the creative industries, and five years as a governor of Highgate School.
Zoe Leventhal
Zoe Leventhal KC is a leading barrister in the field of public law, human rights and environmental law at Matrix Chambers, acting for individuals, NGOs and government departments. She brings a breadth of expertise on environmental judicial review to ELF – recent work ranging from oil and gas licensing and its impact on the marine environment in the North Sea, to the protection of endangered bird species on grouse moors, as well as detailed work on the Climate Change Act 2008. Zoe sits on the Bar Council’s Climate Crisis Working Group and the advisory panel for the Bar Sustainability Network. She has been involved in developing a Rights of Nature approach both in academia (including supporting students via ELF’s legal clinics) and in terms of practical implementation, having recently co-hosted with ELF and Lewes District Council a popular webinar for local authorities on successful initiatives in this field. Zoe is also an independent councillor in her local community working on climate, nature and active travel projects. Zoe says “I am excited to be joining ELF as a trustee at such a critical time for environmental justice and look forward to working with ELF’s new CEO, Robin Pierro and all the other members of the Board to deliver on ELF’s important vision for community environmental participation.”
Honorary Vice President
After 30 years of involvement with ELF, Diana Schumacher and Martin Polden stepped down from the Board of Trustees in 2022, and their contribution was recognised as ELF’s Honorary Vice Presidents. Sadly, Martin passed away in 2023 but Diana remains connected to the organisation as Honorary Vice President.
Diana Schumacher
Diana is a co-founder of the Environmental Law Foundation. In early life Diana was a refugee in India. After repatriation and during her adolescence she developed a keen sense of social justice. Diana has become a prolific writer and social activist focusing on the connections between energy, environment, economics and education (‘the 4 E’s’). Diana has been involved in a plethora of organisations. She is a founder member of the New Economics Foundation, Green Alliance, Green Books (first UK environmental publishing company), and the Gandhi Foundation. She has also been a trustee or patron of over 25 other educational, environmental or development organisations and is currently Vice-President of ECOROPA (Ecological Action Group for Europe).
Michael Taite
A trustee from 2007 to 2026, serving most of that time as either Vice Chair or Acting Trustee, Michael was the lead operational trustee liaising with the executive team. His strategic recommendations, including the combination of an executive team working remotely with a national network of university clinics first advocated in 2012, have shaped what ELF is today. He continues to hold a strong vision for the unique and vital role that ELF must fulfil in helping the UK address its many interconnected and potentially existential environmental challenges. As such, he retains a role as Special Advisor to the Board.