Alfred Brownell

Founding President

Alfred Brownell is an internationally recognized environmental rights activist and lawyer from Liberia. He is the founding president of Global Climate Legal Defense, which emboldens climate defenders to challenge the corporate and governmental drivers of climate change, knowing that lawyers will have their backs.

Brownell has advocated for more than two decades to protect the environment and human rights in West Africa and to empower Liberians and West Africans victimized by resource exploitation. He co-founded and headed the public interest law and non governmental environmental rights organization, Green Advocates International.  There, Brownell pioneered a framework for environmental law within Liberia’s legal system. His efforts have led to significant successes, including the temporary protection of six million acres of forest from development by palm oil companies. 

Brownell’s advocacy has led to backlash and targeting of him and his family.  In 2016, following repeated death threats, Brownell was forced to flee Liberia and is living with his family in the United States in temporary exile. In 2019, Brownell won the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize, considered the “green Nobel,” which honors the achievements and leadership of grassroots environmental activists. 

He has also served as the Robert F. Drinan, J.J., Chair in Human Rights at Georgetown University Law Center and the Tom and Andi Bernstein Human Rights Fellow and Visiting Research Scholar at Yale Law School.