Biography

Hailing from southern Tuscarawas County, Ohio, Emily has spent her 15-year legal career in environmental law practice and teaching. Kicking off her practice as a student at the Pace Environmental Litigation Clinic in 2003, she then became an Assistant Public Interest Counsel at the Office of Public Interest Counsel in the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. In 2008, she took the helm of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law's Environmental Law Clinic as a Clinical Assistant Professor. She became a Clinical Associate Professor in 2013. In the same year, she founded Fair Shake ELS. In 2014, she became the Executive Director and Managing Attorney.

Emily received her B.A. in 2001 from New York University's Gallatin School. She earned her J.D. from the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University in 2004. She is admitted to practice in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Texas (inactive), the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

Emily has published in law journals and is a frequent speaker on entrepreneurship in legal practice, water law, oil and gas law, underground injection of wastewater, public participation in environmental decision-making, and environmental permitting and enforcement. Her publications include Permitting Shale Gas Development, 29 J. Land Use & Envtl. L. 117 (2013); New Withdrawals, New Impairments as Pennsylvania Develops the Marcellus Shale, American Bar Association, Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources, 2010 Eastern Water Resources Conference, May 20-21, 2010; and The "Public Interest" Factor in Waste Disposal Well Permitting, 38 Tex. Envtl. L. J. 229 (2008). In 2016, she was named to the inaugural Irish Legal 100: 40 Under Forty honoree list, a compilation of rising stars of Irish descent in the U.S. legal profession. She is also the recipient of the 2014 Nicholas A. Robinson Alumni Achievement Award from Pace Law School.

Emily is an Instructor in the Department of Geology and Environmental Science at the University of Pittsburgh Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences and an Instructor at the University of Akron's Williams Honors College. She teaches courses on Environmental Ethics and Water Law, Science and Policy. Her volunteer activities include membership on the Board of Directors of Construction Junction, Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens and the Haymaker Farmers' Market; and race directing the Canal Corridor 100 Mile Endurance Run.

Emily enjoys ultrarunning, skiing, woodworking, farming, gardening and spending as much time as possible with her partner Kelly and her pups, Bruno and Iza.