Hana Heineken

Hana Heineken is an attorney at ClientEarth, a nonprofit environmental legal advocacy organization. She specializes in the intersection of environment, human rights and finance, with a focus on climate change. She joined the GW Law faculty in 2024.

Prior to ClientEarth, Ms. Heineken served as a Senior Attorney at the Center for International Environmental Law, leading efforts on pension fund management of climate risk and the regulation of climate-related financial risk. Her diverse experience also includes roles as a Senior Campaigner at Rainforest Action Network, holding multinational banks accountable for their financing of tropical deforestation, human rights violations, and fossil fuel expansion; and a Senior Policy Advisor at Global Witness, where she led international efforts to stop the illegal timber trade into Japan. Ms. Heineken has also worked in the Japanese Parliament, and has been recognized by the Nikkei news agency as a top influencer in Japan on Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) issues.

In the DC metro area, she founded the Zero Waste Committee of the Sierra Club DC Chapter and co-led civil society efforts to establish zero waste laws informed by environmental justice.

Fluent in English and Japanese, Ms. Heineken graduated with distinction from Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University, obtained a research certificate from Tokyo University Graduate School for Law and Politics, and graduated from Princeton University majoring in political science. She is a member of the state bars of New York and Washington, DC.