Sara Colangelo is a Visiting Professor of Law and the Director of the Environmental Law & Justice Clinic. She is the 2020 recipient of the Georgetown Law Fahy Teaching Award. From 2015-2021 Professor Colangelo served as Director of Georgetown’s Environmental Law and Policy Program, teaching multiple courses in environmental law. Her research focuses on environmental law and environmental justice, frequently with the use of multidisciplinary lenses to identify legal strategies to better serve communities disproportionately burdened by environmental harm and marginalized in decision-making processes. Her scholarship is forthcoming or has appeared in the California Law Review, Harvard Environmental Law Review, in the book Environmental Law Before the Courts: A US-EU Narrative, and other law journals. Professor Colangelo has served as lead and co-author for U.S. Supreme Court amicus briefs, testified before Congress, and is a frequent contributor to media outlets. She is also a member of multiple boards and committees on environmental law and scholarship, environmental justice, and science and health.
Previously Professor Colangelo served as a trial attorney for the Environmental Enforcement Section (EES) of the Environment and Natural Resources Division at the Department of Justice for many years. She joined the Division through the Attorney General’s Honors Program. At EES, she managed complex civil environmental enforcement cases for pollution control and cleanup of hazardous waste sites to negotiated or litigated resolution, appearing on behalf of the United States in trials across the country. Professor Colangelo received multiple awards from the Environmental Protection Agency and from the Environment Division for her work. In addition, she was nominated for two awards from the Attorney General.
Professor Colangelo is a graduate of Georgetown Law, where she was a student in the Clinic she now directs. She also served as research assistant to Professor Richard Lazarus and was a member of the Georgetown International Environmental Law Review. She holds a B.A. from Brown University, where she graduated magna cum laude, was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa, and received the William Gaston Premium Scholarship.
Scholarship
Forthcoming Works - Books
Environmental Law Before the Courts - A US-EU Narrative (Giovanni Antonelli, Sara A. Colangelo, Michael Gerrard et al., eds., Springer forthcoming).
Forthcoming Works - Journal Articles & Working Papers
Sara A. Colangelo, Bridging Silos: Environmental and Reproductive Justice in the Climate Crisis, 112 Calif. L. Rev. (forthcoming).
Contributions to Law Reviews and Other Scholarly Journals
Sara A. Colangelo, Forging Complete Justice: Equitable Relief in Environmental Enforcement, 46 Harv. Envtl. L. Rev. 315-365 (2022).
Brief of Amici Curiae American Thoracic Society, American Medical Association, American Academy of Pediatrics, American College of Physicians, and Leaders of Public Health Schools, et al. in Support of Respondents, West Virginia v. Envtl Protection Agency, Nos. 20-1530, 20-1531, 20-1778, 20-1780 (U.S. Jan. 25, 2022).
