Osler's Razor

On Wednesdays here at the Razor, I am profiling my classmates from law school. For a recap of those profiled so far, go back to Tuesday of last week-- they are turning out to be a fascinating bunch. 

Liz Barrett-Brown came to Yale Law from Brown, and had already done substantial work towards her continuing passion, the environment. Even before law school, she had worked for the National Resources Defense Council and Senator Frank Lautenberg on things like toxic chemicals.

I remember her as someone I admired from the first moment: unlike many of us (including me) she had already found what animates her and it shone. (I also seem to remember her really kicking my ass in a game of squash, too).

Her life since law school has been a fulfillment of the promise I'm sure our profs saw in her. She went back to the NRDC as a lawyer, and has worked on global climate treaties addressing climate change, biodiversity and ozone depletion. She has also played a role in the fight against the Keystone XL pipeline and the expansion of tar sands oil extraction in Canada.

More recently, she and her family took over a 13th century estate on the Spanish island of  Majorca, where they raise organic olives and sheep (she is still a consultant for the NDRC, too). The estate, Pedruxella Gran, sounds like quite a place. You can volunteer to work there, actually, which seems like a pretty good deal if you get to enjoy all the area offers. And I imagine it might be worth the trip just to talk to Liz and her family.

It's amazing to uncover these stories, one by one. If nothing else, we were not a boring bunch.