- Faculty
Lindi von Mutius JD’08
Titles
- Visiting Professor of Law
Contact
Biography
Lindi von Mutius is a visiting professor of law at Vermont Law and Graduate School, working with the Environmental Justice Clinic, coaching student clinicians, and handling cases related to waste, biofuels, and toxics. Lindi is also the Class of 1946 Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies at Williams College, where she teaches “Toxics, Justice, and the Law,” and is the inaugural director of the Center for Environmental Networks (CEN). As the director of CEN, she is the architect behind the annual Connections Summit and provides opportunities for leaders of environmental organizations to have strategic conversations. Her research interests include adaptation to extreme heat, natural disaster management for vulnerable populations, biodiversity protection in forests, toxics and waste, environmental history, and increasing equitable access to the outdoors.
Previously, Lindi worked as the inaugural director of the Harvard University Climate Action Accelerator, where she was the innovative mind behind Harvard Climate Action Week and Harvard@NYCW. At Harvard, Lindi also served as the director of the Sustainability and Global Development Practice programs. She served as the chief of staff of the Sierra Club from 2017–2020, and has held executive management roles at the Trust for Public Land and the Environmental Defense Fund. Lindi began her legal career with Flaster/Greenberg and Fox Rothschild, and ran the government affairs team at the Representative of German Industry and Trade, a branch of the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Action, in Washington, DC. She has represented clients from American Express, GEICO, and Porsche, to Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Trustees, the YWCA, teenagers in the juvenile justice system, sex workers, churches, family foundations, community groups in Camden, New Jersey, and she founded a pro-bono legal clinic in Lyons, New Jersey, to serve homeless veterans. She began her environmental justice career working with the Association for the Protection of the Environment in Cairo, Egypt.
After graduating from Phillips Exeter Academy, Lindi attended Williams College, graduating with honors in 2003. She earned her ALM in Environmental Management from Harvard University in 2005, magna cum laude, and graduated from Vermont Law and Graduate School in 2008, earning the Excellence in Appellate Advocacy Award and the Black Law Students Distinguished Service Award. Lindi serves on the boards of Defend Our Health, The Summit Foundation, and the Trust for Public Land. In her free time, Lindi enjoys kayaking, winter sports, hiking, gardening, and, as her stepson says, “tea, tacos, and dogs.”
Expertise
- Environmental Justice
- Environmental Law
Departments
- Environmental Justice Clinic
Courses Taught
- Environmental Justice Clinic