Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University Professor Achinthi Vithanage Recognized with 2025 Ottinger Award for Faculty Achievement

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The Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University is proud to announce that the 2025 Ottinger Award for Faculty Achievement has been awarded to Achinthi Vithanage, Professor of Law for Designated Service in Environmental Law & Executive Director of Environmental Law Programs. The Richard Ottinger Faculty Achievement Award is awarded annually by the Faculty Development Committee, in consultation with the Dean, in recognition of a full-time professor’s outstanding service to the law school, the legal profession, or both. The award generally is based on the faculty member’s outstanding service during the previous academic year.

Professor Katrina Fischer Kuh, chair of the Faculty Development Committee, remarked: “Achinthi Vithanage is a recognized and respected leader in the field of environmental law, both nationally and internationally. Her work with the IUCN and the ABA Section on Energy & Environmental Law (SEER) has been inspirational and effective and through this she continuously strives to identify and create substantive opportunities for students to gain meaningful experience. Achinthi is a role model not just to our students and faculty at Pace Haub Law, but more broadly throughout the field and academic community. We are proud to honor her and her service with this recognition in the form of the Ottinger Award for Faculty Achievement.”

For Harrison Bench ’27, a student in the JD/MEM dual degree program with Yale School of the Environment, Professor Vithanage’s guidance has been transformative: “Professor Vithanage is not only an ardent and knowledgeable instructor, but also a dedicated mentor to and advocate for her students. She helped me secure two separate legal internships, introduced me to ABA SEER’s Environmental Law Society Network, and allowed me to take her Advanced International Environmental Law seminar so that I could participate in the upcoming IUCN World Conservation Congress. Her commitment to networking, real-world opportunities, and experiential learning makes Professor Vithanage an invaluable member of the Pace Haub Law faculty and Environmental Law Program.” Harrison is a student co-chair of ABA SEER Environmental Law Society Network and a Symposium Editor for Pace Environmental Law Review.

Professor Vithanage is recognized as one of the country’s leading environmental and energy lawyers with listings in LawDragon’s inaugural Environmental and Energy Lawyers list in 2021 and in LawDragon’s 500 Leading Environmental Lawyers Guides for 2023, 2024, and 2025. Within the American Bar Association’s Section on Environment Energy & Resources (SEER) she serves on its Governing Council (2023-2025), heads the Law Student Transition Task Force and is a member of the Sustainability in Legal Education Task Force, is the founding Co-Chair of the Environmental Law Society Network, and a former Co-Chair of the International Law Committee. She serves on the Secretariat to the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Academy of Environmental Law, co-leads the Climate Change Collaborative Research Network for the Law & Society Association, is a member of the World Commission on Environmental Law, and an originating member of the International Association of Energy Law, a global network of early career energy law professors. Most recently, she attended COP30 and COP28 as the ABA Delegate and serves on several Boards, including the Editorial Advisory Board for the Environmental Law Institute’s Environmental Forum publication, the Editorial Board for Yearbook of International Environmental Law, the Board of Directors of the Federated Conservationists of Westchester County, and the Sustainable Business Law Hub’s Advisory Board.

Prior to joining Pace Haub Law, Professor Vithanage was a Visiting Associate Professor of Law at the George Washington University Law School (GW Law). Professor Vithanage was born in Sri Lanka, lived in the United Arab Emirates, practiced as an attorney in the state of New South Wales (NSW) in Australia, and undertook tertiary studies in Australia, Japan, China, Spain, and the United States, providing her a unique international perspective. She also worked at the Energy & Water Ombudsman of NSW and practiced in the corporate, commercial, and property legal sectors in Sydney, Australia.

The Ottinger Award for Faculty Achievement is named in honor of Richard L. Ottinger, who served in the United States House of Representatives for eight terms, from 1965 to 1971 and from 1975 to 1985. Ottinger was Dean of the Law School from 1994 to 1999 and is the founder of the Pace Energy Project, now known as the Pace Energy and Climate Center. Learn more about the Richard Ottinger Faculty Achievement Award and other faculty designations and awards.