Andrew C. Mergen
Andrew Mergen is a Visiting Assistant Clinical Professor of Law and Faculty Director of the Emmett Environmental Law & Policy Clinic. Prior to joining the Harvard Law School faculty, Andrew Mergen served in the Appellate Section of the Environment & Natural Resources Division (ENRD) at the United States Department of Justice. Professor Mergen began his career at the Justice Department in the Honors Program and concluded his career as Chief of ENRD’s Appellate Section. He has presented oral arguments in all 13 federal courts of appeals, including two en banc courts, and before several state intermediate and supreme courts. He has also worked on over a dozen merits cases in the Supreme Court of the United States. In addition, in 2009, Professor Mergen assisted the Office of White House Counsel on the confirmation of the Honorable Sonia Sotomayor as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. During his career at the Justice Department, Professor Mergen received the Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service three times. He also received ENRD’s Muskee-Chafee Award, honoring his work’s significant contribution to protecting the environment. More »
Sommer Engels
Sommer Engels joined the Emmett Environmental Law & Policy Clinic as a Clinical Instructor in August 2023. Sommer previously served as an attorney in the Appellate Section of the Environment & Natural Resources Division at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) for six years. Her cases covered numerous pollution control and natural resource management statutes and touched on a range of jurisdictional and constitutional issues. Sommer authored 25 merits briefs and dozens of substantive motions and memoranda, and she presented 15 oral arguments in federal appellate courts across the country. She was also one of the Appellate Section’s law clerk program coordinators and has extensive experience working with and training law students.
In addition to her litigation experience at DOJ, Sommer was detailed to the White House Council on Environmental Quality early in the Biden Administration, where she served as Deputy General Counsel. She advised the Chair and other White House officials on the legal implications of environmental initiatives and emergencies nationwide, co-managed an interagency group tasked with developing guidance for federal agencies on Traditional Ecological Knowledge, and helped ensure that proposed regulations were consistent with the Administration’s environmental justice initiatives. Prior to joining DOJ, Sommer was a law clerk for Judge Bruce M. Selya on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. Sommer graduated from the University of Michigan Law School in 2016 and was the managing editor of the Michigan Law Review. She received her B.A. from Colby College.
Rosa Hayes
Rosa Hayes is a Senior Clinical Fellow in the Emmett Environmental Law & Policy Clinic. Prior to joining the Clinic, she served as a law clerk for Judge Kermit V. Lipez of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit and Chief Judge Geoffrey W. Crawford of the U.S. District Court for the District of Vermont. She graduated from Yale Law School in 2020, where she was a member of the Peter Gruber Rule of Law Clinic, the Yale Environmental Law Association, the Yale Urban Law & Policy Society, and the Yale Law Journal. Before law school, Rosa received a B.A. in economics from Wesleyan University and an M.A. in economics from Yale, and worked for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Shannon Nelson
Shannon Nelson joined the Clinic as a Clinical Fellow in Fall of 2024. Prior to joining the Clinic, Shannon worked as an attorney in the Seattle office of an environmental law firm, where she counseled clients on a range of issues, including environmental review, brownfield redevelopment, cost recovery, and emerging contaminants. Shannon graduated from the University of Michigan Law School where she was a Dow Sustainability Fellow and a Notes Editor on the Michigan Journal of Law Reform. She also received an M.P.H. in Environmental Health Promotion and Policy from the University of Michigan School of Public Health. Before graduate school, Shannon received a B.A. in Psychology from Wesleyan University and worked for several years in nonprofit operations and administration.
Jacqueline Calahong
Jacqueline Calahong is a staff assistant for the Emmett Environmental Law & Policy Clinic. Jacqueline has worked at the Tufts University Center for Children, Ceres, Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. She holds a B.A. in political science from the University of Michigan and a J.D. from the Pennsylvania State University Dickinson School of Law.
Wendy Jacobs (In Memoriam)
Wendy Jacobs, Director of the Emmett Environmental Law and Policy Clinic and Emmett Clinical Professor of Environmental Law, passed away after a long illness on February 1, 2021. Her deep commitment to teaching, the legal profession, and the environment profoundly affected everyone who had the honor to work with and learn from her. We have created a memorial website so that Wendy’s many friends, colleagues, and students can share their memories of and tributes to her.
View Wendy Jacobs Memorial Website
Support the Wendy B. Jacobs Environmental Law Fund
Former Clinic Staff and Fellows
Shaun A. Goho
Shaun Goho is formerly a Lecturer on Law as well as the Acting Director and Senior Staff Attorney of the Emmett Environmental Law and Policy Clinic. Shaun graduated from HLS in 2001, where he was Developments Editor of the Harvard Law Review. Following graduation, he clerked for Judge Reginald C. Lindsay in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. He then worked for three years in the Washington, D.C. office of O’Melveny & Myers, with a practice largely focused on securities litigation, and for three years in the Seattle office of Earthjustice, where he litigated a variety of environmental cases in state and federal court, with an emphasis on Endangered Species Act and water rights issues. In the Emmett Clinic, he worked on issues such as citizen science, climate change displacement, and lead in drinking water. Shaun is currently Legal Director at Clean Air Task Force in Boston, MA.
Aladdine Joroff
Aladdine Joroff is formerly a Lecturer on Law teaching the Climate Solutions Living Lab, as well as Senior Clinical Instructor and Staff Attorney in the Emmett Environmental Law & Policy Clinic. Prior to Harvard Law School, Aladdine practiced environmental, energy and land use law in the Boston offices of Beveridge & Diamond and Goodwin Procter, where her work included permitting, operating and regulatory compliance counseling, policy development advocacy, and litigation in state and federal courts. In the Emmett Clinic, Aladdine’s work included developing climate change mitigation and resiliency strategies for municipalities and tribes and creating equitable tools for transitioning energy systems off of fossil fuels. In addition to leading the Climate Solutions Living Lab, Aladdine also taught climate change law and policy courses at Harvard College and Harvard Extension School. She received her J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania School of Law and her M.S. and B.S. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Aladdine is currently Deputy Climate Chief for the Governor’s Office of Climate Innovation and Resilience, Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Debra Stump
Debra Stump was Co-Lead, with Aladdine Joroff, of the Climate Solutions Living Lab course at Harvard. The Climate Solutions Living Lab is a project-based course that enrolls graduate students from across Harvard to develop innovative, feasible, scalable solutions to mitigate climate change. Debra has worked on the Living Lab since it was developed in 2016. Prior to joining Harvard, Debra was an associate at Ropes & Gray in Boston, interned with the Appellate Section of the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the Department of Justice, consulted for an economics consulting firm, and was the associate director of an environmental non-profit in Anchorage, Alaska. She holds a B.A. from Washington University in St. Louis, a Master of Public Policy from University of California Berkeley, and a J.D. from Yale Law School.
Leah Cohen
Leah Cohen was a Clinical Fellow in the Emmett Environmental Law and Policy Clinic from 2020-2022. Ms. Cohen graduated with a joint degree in law and policy from HLS and HKS in 2010, where she was a student at the Clinic. She has worked in and for City, State, and Federal Government, International Development institutions, as well as the private sector on issues related to cities and climate change. For example, she worked at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on development of the Agency’s first climate adaptation plan. She also served as Director of Climate Analysis for Mayor Bloomberg’s Special Initiative for Rebuilding and Resiliency following Hurricane Sandy. In this capacity, she worked with New York City’s Panel on Climate Change, FEMA, and other federal agencies to develop the climate risk information that was used to inform the City’s rebuilding efforts and advocate for changes to federal disaster policy. In the Clinic, she worked on issues such as carbon offsets and energy justice in Native American communities. Leah joined Rich May, P.C. in July 2022 to support their energy efficiency and electrification work in Massachusetts.
Tommy Landers
Tommy Landers was a Clinical Fellow in the Emmett Environmental Law & Policy Clinic from 2020-2022. He graduated from Georgetown University Law Center in 2018 as a Public Interest Law Scholar. After graduating, he clerked for Judge Robert N. McDonald on the Maryland Court of Appeals and then for Judge D.P. Marshall Jr. on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas. Before law school, Tommy directed the advocacy organization Environment Maryland, and he was the Maryland & D.C. Policy Director for Chesapeake Climate Action Network. Tommy’s advocacy focused on the Chesapeake Bay, climate change, and clean energy. Tommy is now a trial attorney in the Environmental Enforcement section of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Environment and Natural Resources Division in Washington, D.C.
Lynne Dzubow
Lynne Dzubow was a Clinical Fellow in the Emmett Environmental Law & Policy Clinic from 2018-2020. Prior to joining the Clinic, Lynne Dzubow served as a Social Justice Fellow at the New York State Office of the Attorney General. There, she worked on environmental litigation matters involving climate change and securities fraud. She received her J.D. in 2015 from the Georgetown University Law Center and her LL.M. in Environmental & Energy Law in 2016 from the New York University School of Law where she served as a graduate editor for the NYU Environmental Law Journal and continued her education with a focus on international environmental law. Lynne is currently an Associate practicing energy and environmental law at McDowell Rackner Gibson PC in Portland, Oregon.