Biography
Alex Marquardt (he/him) is the Executive Director of Climate Defense Project (CDP), a legal nonprofit that advises and supports the U.S. climate movement. CDP has been a leading advocate of the climate necessity defense — also known as the choice-of-evils defense — in which nonviolent protesters have argued for the legal justification of minor lawbreaking to address the climate emergency. Since 2019, CDP has also assisted a growing number of student-led campaigns in filing complaints that ask U.S. state attorneys general to investigate whether university-held fossil fuel investments violate charitable fiduciary laws. Alex received his J.D. from Harvard Law School in 2016. He has written about the climate necessity defense, fossil fuel divestment, and climate justice in The Nation, Fast Company, The Hill, and The Boston Globe. He has given presentations at Harvard Law School, the Climate Litigation Accelerator at NYU School of Law, the U.C. Berkeley College of Environmental Design, the Public Interest Environmental Law Conference, and the Washington State Bar Association. Alex is licensed to practice law in the State of Washington.
