Lara Wallis

Lara Wallis is a Senior Legal Researcher at CCSI, focusing on sustainable investment in land, agriculture, food systems, and other sectors, primarily as part of the Advancing Land-based Investment Governance (ALIGN) project. She is a South African-qualified attorney. Prior to joining CCSI, she worked across a range of human rights, corporate accountability, environmental justice, and natural resource governance issues in South Africa and internationally at organizations including EarthRights International, the Centre for Environmental Rights and the Legal Resources Centre. She is a former law clerk of the Constitutional Court of South Africa and a recipient of the Constitutional Court Trust Ismail Mahomed Fellowship. She holds a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B) and a Master of Laws (LL.M) in Human Rights Law from the University of Cape Town, as well as an LL.M from Columbia Law School, where she graduated as a James Kent Scholar. At Columbia, she was the recipient of the Columbia Law School Human Rights Fellowship, the Lawrence A. Wien Corporate Social Responsibility Fellowship, and, upon completion of her LL.M, the Columbia Law School Global Public Service Fellowship.