James Thornton

James Thornton is an environmental lawyer and writer. He was the founding CEO of ClientEarth, a global non-profit environmental law organisation before moving into the non-executive role of President and Founder. Born in New York, he is also an Irish citizen. Career Education Thornton studied law at the New York University School of Law. Early career Before heading for Europe, Thornton worked for Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), for whom he set up the citizens' enforcement project focusing on the Clean Water Act when the Reagan administration dropped its own enforcement. He brought and won sixty cases in the federal courts in six months. The enforcement project was funded by the McIntosh Foundation, led by Mike and Winsome McIntosh, who would later become the founding funders of ClientEarth.