In 1990–91,she clerked at the Ontario Court of Appeal for a panel of judges including future Canadian Supreme Court Justice and UN High Commissioner Louise Arbour. From 1995 to 2005,Freeman was a Professor of Law at UCLA,where she co-founded the Environmental Law Program and was an award-winning teacher. From 2001 to 2004,Freeman also taught environmental law and served as Associate Dean for Law and Policy at the Bren School of Environmental Science &Management at UCSB.[3]
In 2005,Freeman joined the Harvard Law School faculty.[4] She was one of a number of hires made during Elena Kagan's tenure as Dean.[5] In 2006,she founded Harvard's Environmental and Energy Law and Policy program,[6] a legal "think tank" for climate and energy policy analysis,and established an environmental law clinic.[7]
Freeman currently serves on the Climate Advisory Board of Norges Bank Investment Management,the asset manager of the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund.[11]
In light of the approval of the Willow project and her research grant from Harvard's Salata Institute in 2023 to review corporate net zero targets,scrutiny of Freeman's role as an independent director of the ConocoPhillips board increased.[17]The Guardian described emails allegedly showing that she had facilitated a meeting between ConocoPhillips executives and a director at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in 2021 without disclosing her conflict of interest in a way that fully complied with university policy.[18] The Harvard Faculty Divest steering committee,a group of professors seeking to end fossil fuel use,sent a letter to president Claudine Gay and vice provost for climate and sustainability James H. Stock expressing their concerns about a potential conflict between Freeman's responsibility to ConocoPhillips and the university's climate commitments.[17] The student activist group Fossil Fuel Divest Harvard published an open letter asking her to resign from the company's board.[18] The group acknowledged Freeman's climate work but criticized her effectiveness in "helping reform ConocoPhillips from the inside" and specifically referenced the Willow project.[19] Additionally,a group of former students from one of her classes at Harvard Law School wrote an open letter to Freeman. While stating they admired her "proven dedication to achieving environmental justice",they asked her to sever her relationship with ConocoPhillips.[20][21]
Freeman defended her position,calling her engagement with ConocoPhillips "positive" in helping move the industry towards a low-carbon future.[22] She explained that she had made an introduction to ConocoPhillips on behalf of her Harvard colleague John Coates,[18] who was an incoming SEC director and sought input from ConocoPhillips to educate himself on industry views as he addressed climate issues at the Commission. Coates issued a statement in which he stated that he knew about Freeman's role at ConocoPhillips,that he initiated the conversation,and that Freeman did not "lobby" him or other SEC personnel.[21][22] Freeman said her actions did not violate rules and that her role at ConocoPhillips was "common knowledge" at Harvard.[18] Her Harvard colleague Richard Lazarus agreed,saying there was "absolutely no conflict of interest" with her board role.[21]Norm Eisen,a government ethics specialist with the Brookings Institution,told The Washington Post:"From an ethics perspective nobody has pointed to a specific violation here. It's ethical. Whether it's virtuous or not is a genuine question for other authorities to debate."[23]
Freeman resigned from the ConocoPhillips board in August 2023. In a statement,she said she would focus on her research at Harvard and pursue new opportunities,including a book about environmental challenges and ideas for further progress.[22][24]
Selected bibliography
Co-author
—; Farber, Daniel A. (2006). Cases and Materials on Environmental Law. Thomson/West. ISBN9780314908834.
—; Kolstad, Charles D. (2007). Moving to markets in environmental regulation: lessons from twenty years of experience. Oxford University Press. OCLC79857125.
—; Minow, Martha (February 28, 2009). Government by Contract: Outsourcing and American Democracy. Harvard University Press. ISBN9780674032088.
—; Diver, Colin S.; Beermann, Jack M.; Cass, Ronald A. (February 2, 2020). Administrative Law: Cases and Materials. Aspen Publishing. ISBN9781543804423.
Co-editor
—; Gerrard, Michael, eds. (2014). Global Climate Change and U.S. Law. American Bar Association. ISBN9781639052196.
—; Graham, John D.; Konisky, David M.; Barnes, A. James, eds. (February 15, 2021). "The EPA and Climate Change". Fifty Years at the US Environmental Protection Agency: Progress, Retrenchment, and Opportunities. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN978-1538147146.
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