Legal associations and Bars at COP27: What happened in Sharm El-Sheikh and what’s next?

Lara Douvartzidis is an Australian qualified lawyer working in the Legal Policy and Research Unit at the IBA. As a Project Lawyer in the LPRU, she leads projects in environment, climate and business and human rights law and is the Delegate Lead for UNFCCC and COP engagement. She is also an Associate Fellow with the Centre for International Sustainable Development Law. Prior to joining the IBA she practiced in Sydney as a solicitor and Pro Bono coordinator at Johnson Winter & Slattery and at Australia’s Public Interest Advocacy Centre. During her time in private practice, she advised and acted for corporate and pro bono clients with expertise in environment and planning law, dispute resolution and class actions, ESG and modern slavery law obligations and transitional issues faced by clients in these emerging areas. She is passionate about strategic climate litigation trends, First Nations justice, just transitions, and ESG related risk management and compliance. She served as the Associate to the Honourable Chief Justice Kourakis of the Supreme Court of South Australia. She holds an Advanced Masters in European and International Human Rights Law (Ad. LLM) from Leiden University in The Netherlands and a double degree in Law (LLB) and Environmental Policy and Management (BEnvs) from the University of Adelaide, South Australia. She was listed as an Australasian Rising Star in 2021, a Finalist in the Australian Lawyers Weekly 30 Under 30 Awards for Planning, Native Title and Environment Law in 2021, and a Finalist in the Women in Law Awards for Pro Bono Lawyer of the Year in 2020 and 2021. Lara co-chairs the Australian Lawyers for Human Rights Business and Human Rights sub-committee with Dr Natalia Szablewska. Together they assist businesses and civil society in improving the implementation of human rights principles and meaningfully contribute to the development of modern slavery laws in Australia.

Roger Martella is GE’s Vice President, Chief Sustainability Officer for the General Electric Company. In this role, Roger coordinates GE’s mission-critical focus on contributing technology and innovation solutions to the global challenges of the energy transition and climate change, precision health, and the future of flight. Roger leads efforts to operationalize the Company’s ESG actions and engagement with diverse stakeholders to implement solutions toward these global challenges with the same heightened rigor that GE runs its businesses. Prior to GE, Roger co-lead Sidley Austin LLP's tier 1 ranked global environmental law and climate change practices. Prior to Sidley, Roger was General Counsel of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, where he was unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate, and the Principal Counsel for Complex Litigation for the Justice Department’s Natural Resources Section. Roger currently teaches a first of its kind International Environmental Law and Justice class at Howard University Law School. Several ranking organizations have awarded Roger their top ratings and hall of fame recognitions for environmental and climate change law globally and in the United States. Roger has co-authored and edited four books on the intersections of climate change law, international environmental law, human rights, and ESG, including co-editing the recently published Corporate Social Responsibility—Sustainable Business: Environmental, Social and Governance Frameworks for the 21st Century (Wolters Kluwer 2020) and has addressed the United Nations, Congress, and other entities on these topics on many occasions. He is an active board member of the Environmental Law Institute, the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES) and several environmental NGOs, energy think tanks, and “intrapreneurship” organizations and serves on the executive council of both the International Bar Association’s and ABA’s environmental sections (SEERIL and SEER), where he promoted and helped draft recent presidential-level climate resolutions. Roger graduated from Vanderbilt Law School, where he was editor in chief of the Vanderbilt Law Review, and Cornell University. He grew up in Norristown, PA, where his family ran a corner Italian bakery.

Nina is a specialist planning and environmental law practitioner. She has appeared in a number of leading environmental law claims, including the successful challenge to the Net Zero Strategy and a claim now before the Supreme Court concerning the question of whether the scope 3 emissions of oil and gas development are indirect effects of that development for the purpose of an environmental impact assessment. She successfully represented the UK Government before the United Nations in a dispute concerning compliance with international environmental law. She is ranked as a Tier 1 barrister in the Legal 500 and a leading junior in Chambers and Partners. She serves as Vice-Chair of the United Kingdom Environmental Law Association and is a Committee Member of the Planning and Environmental Bar Association. Nina has also featured in The Planner’s Women of Influence list and the ENDS Power List of the most influential environmental professionals: “she is one of, if not the, leader in her field”. She was awarded a Global Leadership Award by the Climate Law and Governance Initiative during COP27.