Gilbert and Sarah Kerlin Lecture on Environmental Law
Roger Martella joined GE in 2017 as Director and General Counsel, Environmental Health and Safety and was thereafter promoted to his current role of Chief Sustainability Officer. Prior to GE, Mr. Martella co-led Sidley Austin LLP's global environmental law and climate change practices. He also served as General Counsel of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, where he was unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate, and the Principal Counsel for Complex Litigation for the U.S. Department of Justice’s Natural Resources Section.
Currently, Mr. Martella is on the board of the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES), the Environmental Law Institute, and several environmental NGOs and energy think tanks. He has co-authored and edited four books on the intersections of ESG, climate change law, international environmental law, and human rights, including co-editing the recently published Corporate Social Responsibility—Sustainable Business: Environmental, Social and Governance Frameworks for the 21st Century (Wolters Kluwer 2020). He is a graduate of Cornell University, where he received a Bachelor of Science degree. Roger also holds a JD from Vanderbilt University Law School.
About the the Gilbert and Sarah Kerlin Lecture on Environmental Law
The Elisabeth Haub School of Law established the Gilbert and Sarah Kerlin Lecture on Environmental Law to expand its programs of research, education, professional and scholarly activity and publications in environmental law, a field for which the law school has received national and international recognition. The Kerlin endowment funds a named professorship on Environmental Law at Haub Law. Professor Nicholas A. Robinson, founder of the Haub School's environmental programs, was named the first Gilbert and Sarah Kerlin Distinguished Professor in 1999 and Professor Jason J. Czarnezki was designated as the second Kerlin Distinguished Professor in 2013. The last Kerlin lecture was given by Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity.