B.A., Princeton University; J.D., University of California, Berkeley
Emily Holland is a human rights specialist and counsel in Simpson Thacher’s Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) and Sustainability Practice. Based in Simpson Thacher’s Washington, D.C. office, Emily advises companies, sponsors and financial institutions on policy and business decisions relating to an evolving scope of ESG requirements and expectations in the U.S. and worldwide, including the development of ESG strategies, due diligence, governance structures, tailored policies and procedures, and reporting and disclosures, and with stakeholder engagement, risk mitigation/crisis management, benchmarking, training and disputes. Focusing primarily on social and governance matters, Emily aids her clients in navigating ESG risk and opportunity across a variety of industries by constructing sustainability strategies and policies in response to corporate governance and responsibility challenges. She has also advised governments, intergovernmental organizations and NGOs on human and labor rights issues and the broader sustainability agenda.
Prior to joining Simpson Thacher, Emily worked at White & Case LLP and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP, where she was a key member of the firms’ Business & Human Rights (Freshfields, White & Case) and ESG & Sustainability (White & Case) groups. She co-chaired a 90+ person ESG & Sustainability Associate Working Group at White & Case.
Emily has written and presented extensively on human rights/ESG issues. In 2011, she co-authored a book on the experience of child soldiers in Liberia and a Liberian woman who became their champion, which was endorsed by Gloria Steinem. Prior to working in law, Emily worked in the humanitarian space (writing, shooting and producing content in-country on s humanitarian organization’s efforts to assist refugees and internally displaced peoples across Africa) and in television news (CNN, ABC).
Emily has been ranked as one of three Star Associates globally for Business & Human Rights Law by Chambers Global (2021 and 2022) and prior to that as an Associate to Watch (2020). She is the recipient of Princeton in Africa’s inaugural Outstanding Alumni Award (2019) and The Bishop’s School’s Young Alumni Award (2009), and has been recognized by the D.C. Bar for her pro bono efforts.
Emily received her J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley – School of Law in 2012, where she wrote for the California Law Review among other journals and interned for California Supreme Court Justice Carlos Moreno and in the US State Department’s Office of Policy Planning. She received her B.A., magna cum laude, from Princeton University in 2001. She is admitted to practice in New York and the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.