Natalie Fields

  • Accountability Counsel

  • 2009 Global Fellow

Natalie Fields
  • Accountability Counsel

  • 2009 Global Fellow

bold idea

Partner with communities harmed by international finance and development projects to hold international institutions and corporations accountable and develop new accountability systems where none exist.

organization overview

Accountability Counsel amplifies the voices of communities around the world to protect their human rights and environment. As advocates for people harmed by internationally-financed projects, we employ community driven and policy level strategies to access justice.

Personal Bio

Natalie Bridgeman Fields, Founder and Executive Director of Accountability Counsel, is one of the world’s experts on international accountability for human rights and environmental abuses.Previously, she served as a consultant on accountability for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the World Bank Inspection Panel.
Earlier in her career, as a lawyer at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati and through her own law office, Natalie litigated corporate, human rights, and environmental cases in U.S. courts.  At Wilson Sonsini, Natalie was part of the Cabello v. Fernández-Larios team that litigated the first case to render a jury verdict on a crimes against humanity claim under the Alien Tort Claims Act. Also at Wilson Sonsini, Natalie headed and participated in the firm’s pro bono asylum program.
In 2015, Natalie was named a Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation Fellow and was awarded a SOCAP Social Entrepreneur Scholarship. In 2014, she was a Visiting Practitioner at Stanford University’s Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law in the Program on Social Entrepreneurship. She was given a Genius Award in the July 2012 edition of Elle Magazine, and in 2011, Natalie was named by the legal publication the Daily Journal as one of the Top 20 Lawyers in California Under 40. In 2009, Natalie was recognized internationally as one of fourteen Echoing Green Fellows for her groundbreaking social entrepreneurship. She has repeatedly been recognized in Super Lawyers Magazine.
Natalie frequently guest lectures on international law, international financial institution accountability, and use of U.S. courts to litigate human rights and environmental claims.
A graduate of Cornell University, Natalie was the recipient of numerous national awards, including the Udall National Environmental Policy Fellowship and the Michael Schwerner National Activist Award. She received her law degree from UCLA School of Law’s Program in Public Interest Law and Policy, where she was Editor-in-Chief of the UCLA Journal of International Law and Foreign Affairs.

  • Organization/Fellow Location ?

    Our most recent information as to where the Fellow primarily resides.

    San Francisco, United States

  • Impact Location ?

    Countries or continents that were the primary focus of this Fellow’s work at the time of their Fellowship.

  • Organization Structure ?

    An organization can be structured as a nonprofit, for-profit, or hybrid (a structure that incorporates both nonprofit and for-profit elements).

    Nonprofit

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