Our Principals

Over more than 20 years, Professor Cordonier Segger has provided strategic counsel to for-purpose companies, national governments, the United Nations, and international treaty bodies across over 80 countries, serving as Senior Legal Counsel to the UNFCCC Presidency and the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, Senior Legal Expert to the International Development Law Organization (IDLO) during the drafting of the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals, and as a senior official in Canada's Ministry of Environment and Climate Change. As a pioneer in the field of sustainable development law, she has authored over 180 publications including more than 30 books in six languages, establishing foundational frameworks for implementing international environmental and development treaties and editing the Cambridge University Press Series on Implementing Treaties on Sustainable Development. She has developed innovative educational programmes and materials for DemEd Global at Cambridge, the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) on sustainability training and policy advice, IDLO's Legal Preparedness for Climate Change and other programmes, and courses for Yale University, McGill University, Oxford University, University of Waterloo, University of Chile, Jindal School of Government and Public Policy, and University of Victoria.

Professor Cordonier Segger works in six languages, with extensive experience in Africa, the Americas, the Middle East, and Europe.

Professor Gehring has advised local governments, business associations, and international financial institutions on the legal dimensions of sustainable economic transition, including trade and sustainable development chapters in free trade agreements, post-Brexit legal frameworks, and climate change policy in international trade rules, building on his experience practising European and international trade law with Cleary Gottlieb in Brussels and serving as a member of the Frankfurt/Main and Ontario Bars. His research has established foundational frameworks in sustainable development law, with seminal publications on the intersection of climate change policy and international trade rules, EU external relations law, and international investment law, contributing to the field's evolution as a pioneer scholar and 2022 Laureate of the Climate Law and Governance Awards. He has developed educational programmes and materials on sustainable development law for the University of Cambridge Institute of Continuing Education and other institutions, including serving as Visiting Professor at Yale Law School (Spring 2023) and holding a Jean Monnet Research Chair ad personam in Sustainable Development Law at the University of Ottawa Law Faculty in Canada, training the next generation of lawyers and policymakers in this critical field.