Viveca Morris ’15 Advances Environmental and Animal Protection through Law and Policy

Viveca Morris ’15 B.A., ’18 M.E.M., ’19 M.B.A. is a Clinical Lecturer in Law, Research Scholar in Law, and Executive Director of the Law, Environment & Animals Program (LEAP) at Yale Law School. Her work examines the impacts of big business on the environment, with a particular focus on the role of multinational agribusinesses in the climate crisis and strategies for creating a more sustainable, humane, and resilient food system.

Morris founded Yale Law School’s Law, Environment & Animals Program (LEAP) in partnership with Faculty Co-Directors Doug Kysar and Jonathan Lovvorn. The multidisciplinary program addresses large-scale industrial harms involving animals and their broader impacts on people and the planet.

At Yale, Morris has spearheaded several initiatives at the intersection of law, climate, agriculture, and animal protection. These include LEAP’s Climate Change & Animal Agriculture Accountability Initiative, which examines legal strategies for addressing greenhouse gas emissions from animal agriculture; the Yale Big Ag & Antitrust Conference, focused on the role of antitrust law and competition policy in shaping the global food system; and the Yale Bird-Friendly Building Initiative, which works to reduce bird-building collisions and accelerate the adoption of bird-friendly design. She also co-hosts and produces the Yale University podcast When We Talk About Animals, featuring conversations with leading thinkers about animals, society, and the environment.

Before her work at Yale Law School, Morris worked in early-stage venture capital. Her writing on business and the environment has appeared in The Los Angeles Times, The Hill, and Politico, among other publications.

As a Yale undergraduate, Morris explored many of the issues that continue to shape her professional work today. Her senior thesis, advised by Professor John Wargo, examined innovation and disruption in the food industry and its broader environmental implications. Her career demonstrates how the study of environmental issues can lead to interdisciplinary work spanning law, business, food systems, climate policy, and animal protection.