Ellie Happel Global Justice Clinic at NYU Law

Ellie Happel directs the Haiti Project of the Global Justice Clinic at NYU School of Law. She also serves as a Global Justice Clinic Staff Attorney. Since 2013, the Clinic has worked closely with the Kolektif Jistis Min (Mining Justice Collective), a coalition of Haitian human rights and social movement organizations that came together to monitor the development of the extractive industry in Haiti. The collaboration aims to build the power of communities affected by mining to know their rights, access information, generate data, and monitor human rights violations. In addition to the Haiti Project, Ellie co-supervises the Clinic’s Legal Empowerment team which is documenting legal empowerment strategies to increase access to justice for those navigating the U.S. immigration system. Happel lived and worked in Haiti between 2012 and 2017 and returns frequently in connection with her work. Prior to law school she worked in environmental justice and public health in Nicaragua, Peru and Washington, D.C. Happel is a 2011 graduate of NYU School of Law where she was a Root-Tilden-Kern scholar. She holds a B.A. in Metropolitan Studies from New York University.