Viveca Morris is a Clinical Lecturer in Law, a Research Scholar in Law, and the Executive Director of the Law, Ethics & Animals Program at Yale Law School.
Morris investigates the impacts of big business on the environment. Her recent research focuses on the role of multinational agribusinesses in the climate crisis, strategies to hold agribusinesses and associated actors accountable for their environmental impacts and externalized costs, and policy reforms needed to make agriculture more sustainable, humane, and resilient.
She founded the Law, Ethics & Animals Program, a multidisciplinary initiative dedicated to addressing large-scale industrial abuses of animals and their impacts on the planet, in partnership with Faculty Co-Directors Doug Kysar and Jonathan Lovvorn. At Yale, she has spearheaded multiple initiatives, including LEAP’s Climate Change & Animal Agriculture Accountability Initiative, which focuses on assessing climate change litigation strategies related to animal agriculture emissions; the Yale Big Ag & Antitrust conference, the first major conference of its kind focused on the role of antitrust laws and competition policy in shaping and transforming the global food system; and the Yale Bird-Friendly Building Initiative, a research initiative that aims to reduce bird collisions and accelerate the adoption of bird-friendly building design. Morris co-hosts and produces the Yale University podcast “When We Talk About Animals,” which features in-depth interviews with leading thinkers about animals and the big questions that animals raise about what it means to be human.
She previously worked for one of the nation’s top early-stage venture capital firms. Morris received B.A., M.E.M. (Master of Environmental Management), and M.B.A. degrees from Yale University. Her writing on business and the environment has been published by The Los Angeles Times, The Hill, Politico, and other publications, and she has been quoted on the topic by publications such as The Wall Street Journal, Unearthed, and The New Republic.
