Julia Olson, founder, Executive Director, and Chief Legal Counsel of Our Children’s Trust, a non-profit public interest law firm that provides strategic, campaign-based legal services to youth from diverse backgrounds to secure their legal rights to a safe climate system has been named the recipient of the 2022 Katharine & George Alexander Law Prize on account of her contributions to this important area of legal practice. Our Children’s Trust is the only legal organization on the planet dedicated exclusively to representing young people in lawsuits against their governments to protect their fundamental human rights from the dangers of fossil fuel energy policy and resulting climate disruption.
Julia graduated from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law in 1997 and shortly thereafter founded her own law practice in the Bay Area to litigate public interest environmental cases on behalf of grassroots conservation organizations in the West. Julia founded Our Children’s Trust in 2010 when, as a new mother, she realized the shortcomings of environmental statutory law in redressing the greatest threat to her children and children everywhere the – climate crisis. Julia is lead counsel in Juliana v. United States, the path-breaking constitutional climate change case brought by 21 youth against the U.S. government for violating their Fifth Amendment rights to life, liberty, property, public trust resources, and equal protection of the law. Julia and Our Children’s Trust are recipients of the Rose-Walters Prize for Global Environmental Activism. She received the Kerry Rydberg Award for Environmental Activism in 2017, is a member of Rachel’s Network Circle of Advisors, and was named as one of Bloomberg’s “Green 30 for 2020”.
The first Katharine & George Alexander Law Prize was presented in March 2008 and has been awarded annually thereafter. This award has been made possible through the generosity of Katharine & George Alexander to bring recognition to legal advocates who have used their legal careers to help alleviate injustice and inequity. The hope is that recognition of such individuals will improve the image of lawyers around the world.
Deborah Moss-West, Co-Chair of the Alexander Prize Committee and Executive Director of the Katharine & George Alexander Community Law Center expressed her appreciation of the Alexander family and prize winner Julia Olson: “We are immensely grateful to the Alexander Family for recognizing extraordinary efforts of lawyers using their legal careers in service of others. Julia Olson and her environmental justice work is indeed worthy of high praise.”
This year’s Alexander Law Prize ceremony will be held on Tuesday, March 29. Online registration will be available soon on the ceremony event page.
