Nikki Reisch

Director, Climate & Energy Program

Nikki Reisch (she/her) is the Director of CIEL’s Climate & Energy Program, where she leads a team of attorneys, campaigners, and researchers driving legal and policy change to address the causes and consequences of climate change and responses to it. In this role, she develops and oversees strategic efforts to hold states, corporations, and financial institutions accountable for climate harm and climate inaction; shift public and private finance away from fossil fuels; halt oil and gas expansion and accelerate fossil fuel phaseout; and center human rights in climate policy and governance. 

Prior to joining CIEL, Nikki was the Legal Director at NYU’s Center for Human Rights and Global Justice and a clinical instructor in human rights law and advocacy at NYU School of Law and CUNY School of Law. She previously held roles as the Policy Advisor on Forests and Climate at the Rainforest Foundation UK and as the Africa Program Coordinator at the Bank Information Center. 

Nikki has over 20 years of experience in environmental justice, corporate accountability, and human rights, with a focus on the impacts of natural resource extraction, investment law, and climate change. She has appeared before domestic and international courts, UN treaty bodies and the accountability mechanisms of international financial institutions, and has co-authored numerous amicus briefs in public interest cases, reports, and academic articles.

She earned a BA in Ethics, Politics, and Economics from Yale University, summa cum laude, and a JD, magna cum laude, with multiple honors from NYU School of Law, and served as a law clerk in the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Ninth and Second Circuits.

Nikki can be reached at nreisch@ciel.org. 

*Nikki is a member of the State Bars of California and New York. Nikki is not currently admitted to the District of Columbia Bar.