Molly helps run the Environmental and Natural Resources Law and Policy Program and directs Stanford’s Lawyers for a Sustainable Economy Initiative, a pro bono initiative comprised of 17 law firms that have committed millions of dollars in pro bono services to green startups and nonprofit organizations doing sustainability work. Molly is also an instructor of Startup Law: Sustainability, Stanford Law School’s first program supporting the founder community. Stanford law students, working under the supervision of the Stanford attorney teaching team, provide pro bono legal assistance and support to non-profit and for-profit startups addressing climate and sustainability challenges. 

Molly spent 8 years advising Environmental Law Clinic students on a range of policy projects and litigation, including most recently on multiple coastal land use and water quality protection matters in California. Before joining the ENRLP Program and Environmental Law Clinic, Molly spent two years as at Stanford’s Center for Ocean Solutions. She worked extensively with local coastal jurisdictions on climate adaptation strategies, focusing on the role that natural habitats play in increasing coastal resilience to sea level rise and storm surges. Molly also worked in private practice as an attorney at Bradley Arant Boult Cummings in Nashville, Tennessee in the Real Estate, Environment, and Natural Resources group.  She advised clients on a variety of environmental issues, including water and air permitting and compliance, chemicals handling and storage, contaminated property acquisitions and wastewater treatment.  Molly’s practice also focused on land use law, including defending regulatory takings claims on behalf of municipalities and helping private sector clients navigate the local land use planning process.

Prior to law school, Molly worked as a program associate at Forest Trends, an environmental non-profit in Washington, DC.  At Forest Trends, she promoted sustainable forest management through market-based conservation incentives, such as carbon trading and biodiversity offsets.