Linda has provided expert testimony and remarks to international and national leadership, federal and state legislative bodies and administrative agencies, and other decision-making bodies, as well as business, academic, and public audiences. Speaking venues have included TEDx, the United Nations, universities (Harvard, Yale, Stanford, and other U.S. campuses as well as universities in Canada, China, Australia, New Zealand, and others), international convenings (Ecuador, Japan, Brazil, Europe, and elsewhere), U.S. Congress, and nonprofit convenings around the globe. Topics have included rights of nature, clean water, water flows and supply, ocean conservation, human rights, environmental justice, sustainable development and investing, philanthropic best practices, and law, policy, and governance generally.

More information available upon request.

U.N. General Assembly, “Nature’s Rights and the Sustainable Development Goals”

JSW Law, Bhutan, “Is the Earth Happy?
Increasing Socio-Ecological Well-Being
through Earth-Centered Governance”

COP23, Bonn, Germany, “Achieving Socially and Ecologically Beneficial Renewable Energy Systems”

2025

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

  • Widener Univ. Delaware Law School, Global Forum: Rights of Nature and the Human Right to a Healthy Environment in Dialogue, “North America”
  • Waterkeeper Alliance, Virtual Global Conference, “Rights of Rivers”
  • Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, “Journey of the Universe: A Story for Our Times,” Guest Lecturer

2019

  • Surfrider Foundation, Annual Meeting, “Lawyer Up: Litigation to Further the Mission”
  • Biodiversity Funders Group, Annual Meeting, “The Courts as Change Agents”
  • University of San Francisco, Data Institute Annual Conference, “Technology and Data Science: Accelerants of the Sustainable Development Goals”
  • Yale University, New Directions in Environmental Law: Climate Justice Symposium, “Exploring the Rights of Nature”
  • Cambridge Conservation Forum, Annual Symposium, Cambridge University: Rewilding and Its Effects on Nature and People, “Public and Private Money for Public Goods”

2018

  • Vermont Law School, 2018 Symposium, “Rights of Nature: Shifting Paradigms and Grounding in the Law”
  • Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature, International Rights of Nature Symposium, Quito, Ecuador: “Comparative Legal Analysis of Rights of Nature”
  • Santa Fe Institute, InterPlanetary Festival, “Planetary Policy and Regulation
  • Toniic, Reversing the Tide, “Philanthropy and Impact Investing”

2017

  • UN, COP23 Climate Change Conference, Bonn, Germany, COP23, Bonn, Germany, “Achieving Socially and Ecologically Beneficial Renewable Energy Systems through Community Engagement”
  • Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature, International Rights of Nature Tribunal at COP23 (Co-Prosecutor)
  • Victoria Forum, Climate Justice for Ecosystems, “Defining and Implementing Nature’s Rights-Based Finance”
  • UN, UNDP SDG Impact Finance: Climate Week, NYC, “Accelerating Blended Capital”
  • UN General Assembly, Interactive Dialogue on Harmony with Nature, “The Role of Nature’s Rights in Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals” at 1:14

2016

  • IUCN, Quadrennial Meeting, Honolulu, HI, “Earth-Centered Law and Regulation for Safeguarding Nature”
  • UC Santa Barbara Bren School and Vermont Law School, Law for the New Economy, “Orienting the Law to Recognize Earth Rights”
  • Bay Area Rights of Nature Alliance, Bay Area People’s Tribunal on the Rights of Nature: Bay-Delta Estuary (Prosecutor)
  • Point Reyes Books, Call of the Forest: Water, Climate & Spirit, “Rights of Waterways” (YouTube), (HuffPost)

2015

  • Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature, International Rights of Nature Tribunal at COP21 (Co-Prosecutor), (YouTube 1), (YouTube2
  • Yale University, Guest Instructor, “Law, Environment, and Religion: A Communion of Subjects” 

2014

2013

  • TEDxMarin, Past Presents Future/A History of the Next 20 Years, “”
  • Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization, Meeting: Tena, Ecuador, “Advancing Sustainable Development and Harmony with Nature through Nature’s Rights”
  • WILD Foundation, WILD10 World Wilderness Congress, Salamanca, Spain, “Advancing Nature’s Rights”
  • Aquatic Ecosystem Health and Management Society, Aquatic Ecosystems at the Edge: Managing for Sustainability, Univ. of Victoria, B.C., Canada
  • UN General Assembly, Interactive Dialogue of the General Assembly on Harmony with Nature, “Caring for Home through Nature’s Rights” 
  • Centre for Global Studies, Univ. of Victoria, BC, “Reclaiming Prosperity Through Nature’s Rights” 

2012

  • University of Victoria, Victoria, B.C., POLIS Discussion Series on Ecological Governance, “Advancing the Rights of Nature in the International Arena”
  • University of Denver, Sturm College of Law, 45th Annual Sutton Colloquium, “Role of the Rights of Nature in Addressing the Limits of Growth”
  • Barry University School of Law, Florida, “Recognizing Earth Rights in Law” and “Climate Change and Earth Rights”
  • Ramapo College, New Jersey, After Rio: Moving Beyond 2015, “The People’s Sustainability Treaty on Mother Earth Rights”
  • UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, “Achieving Healthy Waterways”
  • CIVICUS, World Assembly, Montréal, Canada, “The Road from Rio: Results and Next Steps”
  • UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio +20), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, June 2012: Rights-based law presentations at nine “side events” in both accredited Rio +20 space and People’s Summit, including Rights of Nature as a Foundation for Sustainability
  • University of Oslo Faculty of Law, Rule of Law for Nature, “Fluid Governance: Recognizing the Environment’s Right to Water”
  • World Water Forum and Alternative World Water Forum, Triennial Forum, Marseille, France, Presentations on rights-based water governance
  • California Joint Legislative Committee on Fisheries and Aquaculture, Annual Fisheries Forum, “Water Rights for Waterways and Fish”

2011

  • Stanford Law School, Natural Resources Law & Policy Seminar, “Legal Rights for Ecosystems”
  • University of Hawai’i at Mānoa School of Law, Colloquia Series, “Legal Rights for Waterways”
  • Southern Cross University, Australia, School of Law and Justice, Earth Laws, “Implementing Legal Rights for Ecosystems”
  • Griffith University, Australia, Earth Jurisprudence: Building Theory and Practice
  • Qiantang River Administration of Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou, China, S. Clean Water Laws, “Implementing State and Federal Water Law in California”
  • Hefei University of Technology, China, Environmental Protection, “Implementing State and Federal Water Law in California”
  • Green Gulch Center, Green Gulch II: Developing Rights for Nature, (Organizer and Facilitator of three-day workshop)
  • Stanford Law School, Environmental Law Clinic, “Lessons from Once-Through Cooling Regulatory Effort”
  • California Institute for Integral Studies, Philosophy, Cosmology and Consciousness, “Changing the Foundation of Environmental Law and Policy”

2010

  • Woodrow Wilson International Center, Building New Clean Water Networks in China, Tokyo, Japan and Suwa, Japan, “Building Successful Water Partnerships in California”
  • Public Officials for Water and Environmental Reform, California Water Policy 19, “Water Resources Governance”
  • Forest Trends, Katoomba XVI: Building a Blueprint to Harness New Investment for the Protection of Marine and Coastal Ecosystem Services, “Maximizing the Success of Market Tools in Ensuring Clean Water”
  • UC Berkeley School of Law, The Mindful Lawyer: Practices & Prospects, “Can Mindfulness Transform Legal Doctrine and Policy?”
  • Waterkeeper Alliance, Annual Meeting: La Paz, Mexico, “Legal Rights for Ecosystems”

2009 and earlier

  • Beijing Hydraulic Research Institute, “Clean Water Act, California Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act, and Total Maximum Daily Loads”
  • US Council on Env’l Quality, Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force, Expert Panel, “Coastal Water Quality”
  • State Bar of California, 2008 Environmental Law Conference: Yosemite, CA, “In the Wake of the Cosco Busan
  • California Ocean Protection Council, “Panel Discussion on Salmon Issues”
  • California Joint Legislative Committee on Fisheries and Aquaculture, “Salmonid Decline in California: State of Delta Water Quality Protections”
  • State Water Resources Control Board, Policy Direction on Water Quality Enforcement
  • State Bar of California, 2006 Environmental Law Conference: Yosemite, CA, “The Ocean Frontier”
  • California Stormwater Quality Ass’n., Approaches to Stormwater Monitoring
  • UC Hastings School of Law, 2006 California Water Law Symposium, “Waste Discharge Requirements for Agricultural Runoff”
  • UC Berkeley School of Law, Environmental Law Society Speaker Series, “The Impact of Agricultural Runoff on Marine Resources”
  • California Resources Agency, California Ocean Summit
  • Passionfish, Forum on Sustainable Fisheries and Seafood
  • CLE International, California Water Law, “The Ever-Expanding Scope of the Clean Water Act”
  • California League of Cities, Public Works Officers Institute, “Water Quality Regulatory Issues”
  • Industrial Environmental Ass’n., Environmental and Regulatory Issues Conference and Exposition, “Is Progress Being Made Toward a Sound and Workable TMDL Program?”
  • State of California, California and the World Ocean 2002, “Invasive Species Prevention”
  • US House of Representatives, Transp. and Infrastructure Comm., Implementation of the National Invasive Species Act, “Recommended Improvements for NISA Reauthorization” (Testimony before the Subcommittee on Water Resources, and the Env’t and Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Marine Transportation)
  • Bishop Museum, Honolulu, Hawaii, “Marine Alien Species”
  • University of California, Berkeley, Graduate School of Journalism Seminar, “Covering Fisheries: Environmental, Social and Economic Issues”
  • Golden Gate University, The American Coast: Law on the Edge
  • Stanford University, Sea Change: NAELS Conference on Ocean and Environmental Law
  • California Maritime Academy, Ballast Water Conference, “Developing Solutions for the Pacific Coast Maritime Industry”
  • California Assembly, Hearing of the Select Committee on Coastal Protection, “Reducing the Introduction of Harmful Exotic Species through Ballast Water”