Brontie Ansell

Biography

Brontie is a senior lecturer in law in Essex Law School and has a particular interest in climate justice. She also works as a supervising solicitor in The Law Clinic at the university. She teaches on the land law, employment law and legal research modules. Brontie is a fellow of the HEA. As a lecturer-practitioner, Brontie specialises in housing, employment and climate justice matters when giving legal advice. Brontie gained her LLB (2006) and LLM (2007) at Sussex University. Brontie qualified as a solicitor in 2012 and spent time working at a top 60 firm in the UK as a commercial lawyer. She then moved to an international organisation working with groups of international lawyers on cross border projects. She continued to teach at university business schools including Grenoble Ecole de Management during her time in practice. She then moved to focus on her academic career, taking a position as a full time lecturer in law at the University of Brighton, then senior lecturer in 2020. Here she set up their first pro bono law clinic in 2019 and she became clinic director in 2020. Brontie was also head of subject group for law at the University of Brighton. Brontie is a director and co-founder of the lawyers collective Lawyers for Nature, a CIC that is dedicated to research, education and legal advice on climate justice and nature restoration. She manages the commercial research team as well as providing pro bono legal assistance to community groups and individuals trying to protect the natural world and its non-human inhabitants. Brontie has a particular focus on providing legal advice on matters such as protest law, unlawful eviction of environmental camps, commercial Rights of Nature and planning and judicial review. Lawyers for Nature gained notoriety with its landmark case against Sheffield City Council where 17,500 street trees were saved from being unnecessarily destroyed by a private contractor and protestors had their charges overturned and avoided prison. Recently Brontie was the lead lawyer on the project Nature on the Board. Brontie appointed Nature to the board of directors of Faith in Nature using the concepts of legal subjecthood for Nature and a Rights of Nature approach. Brontie is currently a board member at Faith in Nature, and, along with others, speaks to the board on behalf of Nature. Brontie is continues to conduct commercial research into Rights of Nature, regenerative economy law and the use of these theories and perspectives in corporate law. In particular she is looking at board composition, voting powers and 'Nature directors'. Brontie is currently writing a book on Nature and legal subjecthood in the just transition period.

Qualifications

• LLB Law with Management University of Sussex, (2006)

• LLM Rights, responsibility and the law University of Sussex, (2007)