About Us

Reimagining the Law for Nature

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Our Mission

We envision a future where the value of Nature is recognised, given the respect it deserves, and provided with the legal protections it needs to flourish. Our aim is to reimagine and, ultimately, reshape our legal system to one that protects the inherent rights of the natural world. In doing so, we will contribute to climate rebalance and foster regenerative, ecocentric legal systems that serve all life.Our work is rooted at the forefront of this paradigm shift, where Nature is given legal rights and a voice in critical decision-making processes.

Our Practice

  • We imagine a world in which Nature has legal rights. We act as though it does. 
  • We represent Nature’s interests. We work with organisations across sectors to create deep systems change by embedding the voice of Nature into governance and organisational structures. 
  • We educate others about the Rights of Nature movement, creating shifts in perspective so that future generations thrive in a world where Nature has rights.
  • We work with local, national, and global policy makers to embed Nature’s interests into law and policy.
  • We work with activists and on campaigns to promote Rights of Nature and to encourage changes in the law in imaginative and innovative ways.

Why Lawyers for Nature, why now?

We've built a human-centric world, with a human-centric legal system to support it. Nature and eco-systems are failing as a result. Nature has no voice or legal standing in decision making forums such as governments, NGOs, and businesses. This means that there is little understanding of our symbiotic responsibility with Nature and no direct accountability for those who seek to destroy it. 

There is no place in our system where Nature is an entity with rights in and of itself. This allows for obfuscation and significant damage. Currently, almost all nations are reliant on their government to identify and address damage to the environment via regulatory control and public litigation of offenders. These environmental laws and regulations often lack the requisite strength and are poorly implemented—meaning they do little to prevent, stop, or penalise those who seek to destroy, hoard, and/or damage Nature’s resources for profit.

A significant opportunity exists to alter this course and to create Nature-positive interventions that ripple out for broader benefit. By addressing the lack of legal recognition for Nature, we contribute directly to rebalancing our human-dominated world, thereby drastically slowing and, ideally, reversing Nature’s rapid decline. 

We focus on creating systemic change by embedding Rights of Nature into legal and organisational frameworks across the U.K. and the world. Our work seeks to address the urgent ecological crises exacerbated by our current human-centric legal system.

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Lawyers for Nature is a collective of lawyers, researchers, strategists, academics, activists, students, and campaigners. We have come together to work on behalf of Nature. We are incorporated as a Community Interest Company.

We are united by being:

Authentic

We are genuine, true to our word, personality, values, and to our spirits.

Courageous

We are willing to do the hard work needed to change our systems; we have strength in the face of adversity.

Visionary

We know what the future can and should look like and work to bring that into being using our collective imagination and diverse set of skills.


In addition to these central goals our values are also grounded in the following:

Innovation

Collaboration

Integrity


We act in alignment with our core mission, ensuring that we focus on representing Nature without compromise to expediency or external pressures.


We believe in working alongside communities, experts, and other organisations globally, knowing that real change requires collective effort.


We constantly seek creative solutions to establish Nature’s rights in a system designed to serve humans. Our work disrupts traditional models, creating space for new legal norms that prioritise ecological wellbeing.

A few of the faces behind LFN

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Paul Powlesland

Founder, Director

About

Paul co-founded Lawyers for Nature following his experience providing legal advice and assistance to tree protectors in Sheffield, who were seeking to stop the destruction of thousands of trees in their city. Not only did the law fail to protect these trees, but in many instances it criminalised the tree protesters and facilitated the unnecessary felling. Since then, he has assisted in dozens of campaigns to protect trees, rivers, and other habitats from destruction and has consistently appeared in court to represent Nature. These experiences have shown Paul that our legal system is built on the wrong foundations when it comes to Nature and that a fundamental shift is needed. 

Since co-founding Lawyers for Nature in 2019, Paul has been at the forefront of re-imagining the law for Nature. He represents Nature and Nature protectors in our courts and uses the lessons learned from these experiences to show how our legal system has been fundamentally at odds with Nature. Paul has become a leading voice for Rights of Nature in the UK. Through hundreds of talks, workshops, podcasts, and interviews, Paul passionately advocates for our legal system to come into alignment with Nature and to actively support the protection and restoration of the natural world. 

Paul lives on a boat on the River Roding in East London. In 2019, he founded the River Roding Trust, where he works passionately and tirelessly to protect and restore the river, uphold its rights, and speak for the river’s interests. Paul’s relationship towards the river also provides us with practical examples of the way in which our current legal and regulatory system is failing and how Nature guardianship can instead provide a practical, legal, and philosophical way forward.

Paul practised at the civil and commercial bar for a decade after graduating with a first class degree from the University of Cambridge.

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Brontie Ansell

Founder, Managing Director

About

Named one of Vogue Business’ 100 Innovators of 2024 for her work as a sustainability thought leader, Brontie is the managing director of Lawyers for Nature. Initially focussing on public law and judicial review, she then moved into Rights of Nature work. She was a lead legal architect of the 2022 Faith in Nature, Nature on the Board intervention. Later, she became the first person to sit as the legal guardian for Nature on the board of Faith in Nature and she held this position for two years. Brontie now sits on a number of corporate and non-profit boards as both a non-executive expert and as 'Nature'. Brontie is the managing director of Lawyers for Nature.

Brontie founded Lawyers for Nature in 2019 with Paul Powlesland. She graduated in 2006 with a first in Law and Management from Sussex University where she also completed her masters degree in Law, Rights and Responsibility. Brontie then went on to qualify as a solicitor and complete training at a top 60 law firm. She continued her legal career with international work and lecturing law; teaching at Sussex University, University of Brighton, and Grenoble Business School and, finally, was appointed Associate Professor of Law at the University of Essex. She has lectured across a range of core and specialist legal subjects.

Brontie works with the philosophy of Rights of Nature to bring change to systems, companies, and people. Her work is focussed on creating robust legal structures that allow Nature to be represented in human decision-making spaces. Brontie advocates from the position that Nature already has rights and the law must reflect this in order to be an equitable, democratic society. She is also working on theorising, and putting into practice, the concept of responsibility to future generations and the equitable sharing of all resources across the Earth. Brontie is keen to progress work that builds upon previous movements such as women's rights and children's rights, while stretching imaginations to a place that will enable a just transition for all. Brontie is also a public speaker on similar issues.

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Jessie Mond Wedd

Director, Senior Lawyer

About

Jessie is a director at Lawyers for Nature. Jessie graduated from Sussex University with a first class degree and then qualified as a barrister. She has practiced criminal, family, and regulatory law from 2 Dr Johnson's Buildings, where she remains a tenant. Jessie recently completed masters in Environmental Law at SOAS University and wrote her dissertation on Rights of Nature and Indigenous rights. One of Jessie’s contributions was her involvement in the 'We Are Nature' campaign, which successfully persuaded the Oxford English Dictionary to revise its wider definition of "Nature" to include humans and made the entry freely accessible to the public. This campaign was a vital step in challenging the pervasive notion that humans are separate from the natural world; instead emphasising the importance of viewing ourselves as an integral part of Nature. 

Jessie advocates for the recognition of Nature’s rights within legal and governance systems. Her work encourages a fundamental shift in how people and organisations approach decision-making, urging them to act as though Nature has rights and deserves a seat at the table. Jessie is also interested in the intersection of Indigenous rights, seeking to integrate Indigenous knowledge and perspectives into legal frameworks. Jessie is dedicated to fostering a deeper awareness of our interconnectedness with the environment, aiming to move society away from an anthropocentric worldview towards a more biocentric model that acknowledges the intrinsic value of all living beings and ecosystems.

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Sara Bender

Strategic Projects Lead

About

Sara manages our key strategic projects. From website to events, communications to fundraising, Sara is here to make things happen. While Sara joins us with twenty years of communications experience in the advertising industry, Sara is keen to bring Nature into spaces to challenge—and ultimately change—our dominant narratives.

Sara is on a journey of unlearning and relearning. Sara strives to bring communications expertise into organisations that are experimenting with systems change interventions and are in service of a thriving, vibrant Planet for all. To continue on this path, Sara is proud to be part of the Bio-Leadership Fellowship in the February 2025 cohort.

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Clara Usiskin

Strategic Litigation Consultant

About

Clara studied Philosophy and Law at Sussex University and qualified as a solicitor and senior immigration practitioner at leading civil liberties firm Birnberg Peirce & Partners. Clara has also been a Director at the legal NGO Reprieve and a national security fellow at the Open Society Justice Initiative.  She has a background in complex international legal investigations, strategic litigation, and advocacy, with a broad base of experience across criminal justice, migration, digital rights, freedom of expression, gender, protection of human rights defenders, and national security and human rights. Clara has headed investigations for legal cases around the world including at the English Supreme Court, the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, the European Court of Human Rights, and for multiple UN investigations and human rights bodies. She has engaged with political groupings, committees and individuals across European and African political systems, as well as at the Council of Europe and the European Parliament.  Her work and cases have been featured regularly in the international media including in the New York Times, TIME, Newsnight, Channel 4 News, BBC News, Dispatches, and other media around the world.

Clara is interested in the intersection of rights of nature and human rights, particularly in the context of the global "just transition". She is developing an international research programme with an initial focus on Africa and Europe, taking a deep mapping approach and exploring resonances and potential synergies with similar initiatives in other jurisdictions.  Clara works with local partners across both continents, documenting the nature rights and human rights implications of mineral extraction, mapping the lifecycle of key extracted minerals and exploring ways to develop strategic litigation, and otherwise influence policy and develop protective frameworks at both the domestic and international levels.  Clara is also interested in rights of nature and the digital sphere / internet freedoms, and is aiming to develop research looking at climate freedom of information and misinformation online, and the climate impact of data centres.

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Lucy Gavaghan

River Rights Project Coordinator

About

Lucy is an ecological activist and organiser with a background in International Law and International Relations. At Lawyers for Nature, Lucy has been working as a project coordinator, launching research into the rights of rivers and how to embed ecocentric principles in the social context of the UK through immersive events. Lucy’s focus has been on helping Lawyers for Nature explore the connections between movements such as the Rights of Nature and Stop Ecocide.

Lucy takes a systems approach, exploring the relationships between social justice, climate breakdown, and the defence of nature. Lucy has been working with both international and regional Nature-based networks to develop creative ways of processing and responding to complex, interconnected crises. She believes we need to make knowledge about nature-connectedness and climate breakdown more accessible and memorable—and that making the time and space for honest conversations, and deeper listening, is a promising start.

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Lauren Barnard

Operations Manager

About

Lauren is our Operations Manager. She is responsible for overseeing daily operational tasks and supporting the work of members of the Core Team. Her role also includes managing our communications strategy through content creation and designing our digital presence.

Lauren is also an activist, campaigner and organiser for the UK and Youth Network branches of the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots.

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Jérémie Gilbert

Strategic Advisor on International Law

About

Jérémie is our strategic advisor on international law. Trained in both civil and common law, Jérémie is an international legal scholar, supporting LfN engagement in international law, and notably our campaign to support non-market and ecocentric approaches to international biodiversity law. Relying on his long-term engagement in litigation to support the rights of Indigenous peoples, Jérémie regularly serves as a consultant for the United Nations, and has been involved in several high-level cases of international litigation, providing legal briefs, expert opinions, and witness statements to support the recognition of non-anthropocentric approaches to Nature. He has recently led the establishment of the Interdisciplinary Network on the Rights of Nature.

Jeremie's work examines how international law can provide a relevant framework to support further developments on the Rights of Nature. His work also examines the paradoxical relationship between human rights (which are anthropocentric) and the Rights of Nature, arguing that despite their differences, there are strong alignments evolving, particularly around the right to a healthy environment and climate justice. Jérémie's approach is both transdisciplinary and interdisciplinary, pulling from collaborations with activists, local communities, policy makers, and researchers to better understand and implement Rights of Nature. His work aims to advance understanding of how Rights of Nature might work in practice, particularly when rights are thought to be competing or clashing.

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Belle Ansell

Operations and Events Coordinator

About

Belle is our operations and events person. With a background in the History of Art, Belle works closely with the creative world and draws inspiration from nature. She has a keen interest in the restoration of objects and the reuse of materials. Belle also collaborates with central London galleries, deepening her connection to the art world.

She aims to bring a fresh perspective on commerciality to Lawyers for Nature, reimagining the future of commoditisation in a way that benefits the planet.

Our Story

Our founders, Paul and Brontie, met at the 2019 UK Wild Law Conference. After the event, Paul shared a vision with Brontie for an organisation called ‘Lawyers for Trees’. As a lawyer, Paul sought to create an organisation that would help community groups and environmental defenders protect Nature through legal support and education.
At the centre of our organisation is Rights of Nature. This is, in short, the idea that Nature, either specific parts like woodlands or rivers, or entire ecosystems, should have legal rights and personhood in the same way that companies and humans do.

In 2022, Faith in Nature, the natural beauty company, approached Lawyers for Nature wanting to make Nature the ‘boss’ of their company. Brontie, Paul, the creative directors at Faith in Nature (and the Earth Law Centre) worked together in imaginative ways to give Nature a seat at the board. We have subsequently worked with a number of organisations to give Nature and future generations a voice in their decision-making, you can learn more about our work here. We are currently expanding this work into the third sector, more of which here.  

We have been involved in a number of campaigns, such as the ‘We Are Nature’ campaign (alongside Frieda Gormley at House of Hackney); a grassroots movement to update dictionary definitions of the word ‘Nature’ to include humans. Our campaign has so far persuaded the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) to modify their entry to reinstate a once obsolete wider definition of ‘Nature’. ‘We Are Nature’ is now working to update outdated definitions in the USA and to raise awareness of our interdependence upon, and inseparable connection with, Nature. They will be running a series of workshops at galleries and museums in 2025.



Lawyers for Nature lobby on an international level and attended COP16, the United Nations Biodiversity Conference, to advocate for integrating a Rights of Nature approach in the Biodiversity Credit Marketplace. We worked with the People’s Assembly of Ireland and the Irish Government to seek constitutional amendments for Nature and we are part of the UK-wide consortium to bring a Rights of Nature bill to the UK Parliament in 2026.

At a more local level, we work with local river groups to encourage river guardianship. We are also developing an education and training program so that more people, in more places, can learn about Rights of Nature and become Nature Directors.

We continue to envision new ways for the law to help create a thriving, resilient, and sustainable future, not solely for humans but for all life on earth.

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Our Friends

This work is not possible without a network of partners who are paving the way together. We collaborate and work with the following organisations:

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