J.D., University of California, Berkeley School of Law, 2011
B.A., University of California, Berkeley, 2006
Environmental Justice
Economic Justice
Water Justice
Local Government Law
Legal Geography
Clinical Legal Education
Camille Pannu’s practice draws on principles of community lawyering and uses transactional law tools to achieve environmentally just outcomes for low-income communities. Her research focuses on structural racism, poverty, and environmental inequality in low-income, rural, and unincorporated communities, and her work examines how groups leverage power through corporate law and local government to assert control over shared environmental resources and essential infrastructure.
Pannu joined the Columbia Law faculty as associate clinical professor on July 1, 2022, where she is the founder and director of the Environmental and Climate Justice Clinic, which uses transactional and policy advocacy strategies to address the disproportionate impacts of climate change on low-income communities of color, with particular attention to the circumstance of workers and shifts to sustainable production.
Pannu joined the Law School from the University of California, Irvine School of Law, where she was a visiting assistant clinical professor leading the Community and Economic Development Clinic. Before that, she founded the Aoki Water Justice Clinic at the University of California, Davis School of Law, which partnered with low-income rural communities, water providers, and local and tribal governments to prevent drinking water disasters and address current failures in the provision of safe and affordable water.
After graduating from law school, Pannu received an Equal Justice Works Fellowship to provide environmental justice legal services to low-income communities in California. She also clerked for now-Senior Judge Richard A. Paez on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit and Judge Stefan R. Underhill on the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut.
Academic Publications
Popular Press
Students within the clinic partner with community groups to explore ways to leverage transactional, litigation, regulatory, and policy advocacy strategies to create systemic change.