Lawyers for a Sustainable Economy 2025 Annual Report
2025 Lookback
The Lawyers for a Sustainable Economy (LSE) Initiative and Startup Law: Sustainability vetted over 160 applicants, and with the help of the 22 firms in the initiative, provided pro bono legal help to 60 sustainability-focused startups and nonprofits in 2025. The firms in the LSE initiative worked with many impactful for-profits and nonprofits, supporting projects ranging from improved monitoring of coastal environments and kelp forest conservation to developing a sustainable cement alternative for use in low-cost, low-carbon housing. The firms in the initiative collectively provided over $33 million in pro bono services across all of their sustainability matters in 2025.
Forbes "30 Under 30" Honorees
Four Stanford founders supported by LSE and Startup Law Sustainability made the Forbes annual "30 Under 30" List – three in Energy and Green Tech, and one in Manufacturing & Industry! See more on each winner and their work below.
Meghan Wood
Meghan Wood co-founded PBC Raya Power with Nicole Gonzalez to make solar more accessible by delivering permit-free solar power and storage to renters and home owners. Their modular system provides a lower price point to access solar and storage, and pays for itself over time by lowering utility bills. “Our goal is to make residential solar accessible and affordable for everyone by turning what was once a construction job into a project as simple as assembling an Ikea bookshelf,” Wood said in a recent GSB profile. Raya Power is also working to partner with governmental and community organizations to subsidize solar + storage systems for low-income consumers.
Jade Marcus
Jade Marcus, founder and CEO of Mafix, is pioneering the next generation of climate smart fertilizers. When applied to agricultural fields, their product can boost yields while removing up to 1 ton of CO2 per ton of material through a process known as enhanced rock weathering. Marcus previously worked as an engagement manager for McKinsey & Co. in their sustainability practice, working with clients on green business building and climate investing initiatives.
Gabriella Dweck
Gabriella Dweck, MS '23, is co-founder and co-CEO of Oleo with classmate Kelly Redmond, MS ’23, (who was not eligible for direct recognition based on age). The duo, who met in the School of Engineering's Design Impact program, transform biomass waste into low-carbon feedstocks for ethanol, renewable diesel, and sustainable aviation fuel – with the added benefit of reducing deforestation. The pre-pilot plant they are building in California uses primarily almond and soy hulls, but their technology can work with some 30 different biowaste sources.
Fern Morisson
Fern Morisson co-founded IronGrid with Gabriele Pozzato to tackle a missing piece of the climate puzzle: insurance. The startup uses engineering-based modeling and AI to accurately assess risk in hard-to-insure spaces like clean energy storage and autonomous hardware. By creating effective risk management solutions, IronGrid enables critical infrastructure, hardware and invention.
2025 Pro Bono Highlights
Types of Legal Support
NGOs and startups can apply for free legal assistance in a variety of areas, including:
- Structuring: Selecting the right legal entity for your NGO or startup.
- Commercial contracts: Reviewing and drafting of commercial contracts and privacy policies.
- Staffing: Reviewing and drafting employment, consultant, advisor, and volunteer agreements.
- Advocacy: Researching laws in multiple jurisdictions.
- IP and brand protection strategy: Advising regarding strategy for trademark registration, copyright, patents and licensing.
Who's In the Initiative?
22
Major, private U.S. law firms
4
Corporate and non-profit partners
60
60 startups and nonprofits assisted in 2025
Getting Involved
If you are interested in joining the initiative as a law firm or as a corporate partner, please email us at lawyersforsustainability@law.stanford.edu.
The firms offer pro bono legal assistance to entrepreneurs and non-profits taking on key sustainability challenges.
Law Firms
The firms pledged the amounts below in free legal services for ongoing and new sustainability matters in 2025, with many firms exceeding these pledges by hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars! Beveridge & Diamond, Morrison Foerster, Nixon Peabody, Perkins Coie, and Seyfarth Shaw all significantly exceeded their pledges, with MoFo providing over $12.5 million in pro bono legal services to support sustainability efforts!
- Akin Gump ($250,000)
- Arnold & Porter* ($2 million)
- Beveridge & Diamond ($250,000)
- Cooley* ($1 million)
- Debevoise & Plimpton ($1 million)
- Fenwick ($250,000)
- Foley Hoag ($1.5 million)
- Foley & Lardner ($250,000)
- Hogan Lovells* ($250,000)
- Holland & Knight* ($1 million)
- Latham & Watkins* ($1 million)
- Michelman & Robinson ($250,000)
- Morgan Lewis ($250,000)
- Morrison & Foerster* ($8 million)
- Nixon Peabody ($1 million)
- Orrick ($2 million)
- Perkins Coie ($250,000)
- Ropes & Gray ($1 million)
- Seyfarth Shaw ($350,000)
- Vinson & Elkins ($250,000)
- Willkie Farr & Gallagher ($250,000)
- Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati* ($4 million)
*Lead founder of the LSE Initiative
Corporate Partners
The initiative is truly a collaborative one, with the private sector, NGOs like Grist, and accelerators like Venture for ClimateTech working to support connections between law firms and pro bono recipients. For example, Amazon Web Services is helping to connect startups in their Clean Energy Accelerator to the initiative; the Clean Energy Accelerator supports collaborations between startups and scale-ups developing breakthrough technologies with larger companies to help achieve net zero goals and sustainability objectives. Microsoft also previously helped to connect grantees from its AI for Earth program – a five-year, $50 million initiative that supported and partnered with environmental groups, academic researchers, and start-ups – with the initiative for legal support.
Companies participating in the Lawyers for a Sustainable Economy are making a commitment to assist the initiative in a number of ways, including by: (1) enabling company in-house lawyers to provide pro bono assistance to clients directly, or in coordination with outside LSE-member law firms, on company time; (2) encouraging outside law firms and other companies to participate in the LSE initiative; and (3) using their community outreach activities to identify potential clients who may qualify for, and benefit from, pro bono services provided through the LSE network.
How it Works
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Sponsors*
Premium Sponsors
Partner Sponsors
Advocate Sponsors
*Premium Sponsors are sponsors providing over $15,000, Partner Sponsors are sponsors providing over $7,500, and Advocate Sponsors are sponsors providing over $2,500.
Client Testimonials
We are deeply grateful to Stanford Law School's Lawyers for a Sustainable Economy Initiative for its invaluable support to Pacto Medical. They quickly matched us with expert pro bono legal counsel to support us with employment law, advisor agreements, patent support, stock plan documentation, and more. They have been instrumental in our mission to make prefilled syringes more accessible and environmentally friendly. This partnership showcases how targeted legal support helps drive innovation in climate tech.
Ian Speers, CEO and Co-Founder of Pacto Medical
The response time and care to understand our needs to best partner us with legal counsel from Stanford Lawyers for a Sustainable Economy, and the time, attention, partnership and care of the assigned legal team, has been extremely valuable as our firm continues to grow.
Shii-Anna Mudie, CEO and Founder, Resolument Vert Solutions LLC