Experience

ClientEarth

• United Kingdom
• Civic and Social Organizations
• 200 - 300 Employee

• President and Founder

  • Sep 2022 - Present

• Founding CEO

  • Jan 2007 - Sep 2022

  James Thornton is the founding CEO of ClientEarth, Europe’s leading environmental law organisation. The New Statesman named him one of 10 people who could change the world. The Lawyer picked him as one of the top 100 lawyers in the UK, and BusinessGreen selected him as Leader of the Year for 2014.ClientEarth opened its doors in 2007. Now operating globally, it uses advocacy, litigation and research to address the greatest challenges of our time - including biodiversity loss, climate change, and toxic chemicals. Its work is always built on solid law and science. In the past two years ClientEarth has been shortlisted for an Observer ethical award and won BusinessGreen’s NGO of the Year award and the Law Society's Excellence award.He is a member of the bars of New York, California and the Supreme Court of the United States, and a solicitor of England and Wales. He also founded the Los Angeles Office of NRDC, which does internationally important environmental work with the support of the Hollywood community. He is the author of two environmental novels: a legal thriller, Immediate Harm, and a scifi thriller, Sphinx: The Second Coming. James is a Zen Buddhist priest in the Soto tradition. He is also a fellow of the Zoological Society of London, The Ashoka Foundation, and the Royal Society of Arts. Show less



Heffter Research Institute

• United States
• Research Services

• Executive Director

  • 2000 - 2007



Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)

• United States
• Public Policy
• 700 & Above Employee

• Senior lawyer and founder of Los Angeles Office

  • 1982 - 1991

  Created and ran the Citizen's Enforcement Project which sucessfully brought more than 100 cases agains water polluters in federal court and embarassed the Reagan administration into enforcing the law. Then moved to CA and founded the Los Angeles Office of NRDC. Created and ran the Citizen's Enforcement Project which sucessfully brought more than 100 cases agains water polluters in federal court and embarassed the Reagan administration into enforcing the law. Then moved to CA and founded the Los Angeles Office of NRDC.