Solving the environmental challenges of today necessitates an active role by businesses. However, navigating sustainable solutions to these increasingly complex challenges is no simple endeavor, and we need young professionals who are equipped with the training, business acumen and legal know-how to confidently meet these challenges head-on.
The Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University recognized the need for a new cohort of legal professionals who embody such interdisciplinary skills, and recently launched the Sustainable Business Law Hub to train the first generation of sustainable business lawyers.
Haub Law”™s Sustainable Business Law Hub is more than just an educational venture to empower graduate lawyers with a mind for sustainable business practices; it also helps employ those practices in real time, benefiting the social spectrum of businesses and the environment. Serving as an incubator space, a research endeavor and a think tank devoted to addressing local and global sustainability challenges through policy and research projects, relationships with the business community and capacity building in private environmental governance, the Hub program is a prime opportunity for Haub Law to meaningfully contribute to the enhancement of good corporate citizenship.
The rigorous curriculum, with seminars related to environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) and sustainable development, is complemented with opportunities for practical experience through externships and a practicum. Within those settings, the students work in an in-house sustainability or legal department, handling environmental compliance issues, ESG and assisting with sustainability strategies and policies.
The Sustainable Business Law Hub is yet another innovative feature of Haub Law”™s environmental law program, which is ranked No. 1 in the nation. Indeed, Haub Law has been teaching the nation”™s students the importance of sustainability for many years through a selection of over 40 environmental law courses and clinics dedicated to various elements of environmental law, including energy & climate, land use, environmental litigation and advocacy, food business transactions and international environmental law and diplomacy.
In addition to faculty experts in the field, Haub Law is proud to have alumni who serve prominently in environmental law firms, agencies and nonprofit organizations across the U.S. and abroad. The Sustainable Business Law Hub not only draws on the expertise of these exceptional individuals, it also cultivates partnerships between the school and the local legal and business communities to achieve its goals.
The Advisory Board for the Sustainable Business Law Hub consists of a number of legal and business leaders, including Anna Marciano Romanella (Haub Law ”˜00), division general counsel, Nespresso USA & International Premium Waters, head of U.S. legal sustainability at Nestle USA; Colin Myers (Haub Law ”™21), senior consultant, FTI Consulting; Anna-Sophia E. Haub, ESG project manager, Emil Capital Partners LLC; Madhuri Pavamani, sustainability & ESG advisory practice director at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP; Haub Law Dean and Professor of Law Horace Anderson; Jon Brown, professor and director of Haub Law”™s Food and Beverage Law Clinic; and Haub Law Assistant Professors Josh Galperin and Shirley Lin.
The timing of the launch of the Hub late last year also coincided with the launch of the Lubin Center for Sustainable Business by Pace University”™s Lubin School of Business. The Lubin Center focuses on the integration of business, environmental, social and governance stewardship. The Sustainable Business Law Hub complements the Lubin Center and functions parallel to it.
As part of the launch of the Sustainable Business Law Hub, Haub Law will later this year host an inaugural roundtable discussion, “Building Sustainable Business and the Role of Law,” which will include discussions with business leaders, attorneys and thought leaders from the local legal and business community.
We would love to hear from local businesses that have externships or jobs for Hub students, or that would like to fund our Hub student scholars and fellows or provide suggestions for our curriculum. Please contact Professor Jason Czarnezki, jczarnezki@law.pace.edu.
Jason Czarnezki is the Gilbert and Sarah Kerlin distinguished professor of environmental law and the associate dean and executive director of environmental law programs at Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University.
