LEAP Welcomes Three New Fellows

The Law, Environment & Animals Program (LEAP) at Yale Law School is delighted to welcome three new fellows for the 2025-26 academic year: Camille Bond, Kathleen O'Gorman, and Jaycie Thaemert.

“We could not be more excited to welcome these three new fellows, with such varied and impressive credentials, to the LEAP team,” said LEAP Faculty Director Doug Kysar. 

All three fellows will contribute to LEAP’s Climate Change & Animal Agriculture Legal Initiative (CCAALI). CCAALI works at the intersection of climate change and the food system, exploring the potential for legal approaches to hold animal agriculture companies accountable for their climate pollution.

“We are honored that Jaycie and Camille—who previously worked with us as summer law student fellows and were fantastic team members—have returned, and that Kathleen has chosen to spend her postgraduate year as an NYU Law Public Interest Grant recipient with us,” LEAP Legal Director Daina Bray said.

Camille Bond, LEAP’s new Litigation and Program Fellow, is a graduate of Lewis & Clark Law School, where they served as Editor in Chief for Animal Law Review, the nation’s oldest journal dedicated to animal legal issues. Bond has previously worked for ClientEarth, Earthrise Law Center, and Western Environmental Law Center. Before law school, Bond trained as a journalist at the Columbia Journalism School and reported on energy issues for E&E News. Among other accomplishments, Bond was the recipient of Lewis & Clark’s 2026 Animal Law JD Leadership Award, an award given to graduating students who have earned the respect of their faculty and peers for their leadership and dedication to the advancing the field.

Kathleen O'Gorman, a graduate of New York University School of Law, joins LEAP as a Postdoctoral Fellow with support from an NYU Law Public Interest Grant. At NYU, she was a member of the Environmental Law Journal and worked with the Natural Resources Defense Council through NYU’s Environmental Law Clinic and with the Guarini Center on Environmental, Energy and Land Use Law as a research assistant. O'Gorman also has worked with the Office of the New York State Attorney General’s Environmental Protection Bureau and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of the Assistant General Counsel for the Environment. Before law school, she received a Master’s degree in Behavioral Science from the London School of Economics and Political Science, where her dissertation explored methods to combat climate change misinformation.

Jaycie Thaemert is a Climate Change & Animal Agriculture Litigation Fellow and Associate Research Scholar. Thaemert graduated from Lewis & Clark Law School in 2024, where she served as editor in chief of Environmental Law. Following law school, Thaemert clerked for the Alaska Superior Court and the Alaska Supreme Court. During law school, Thaemert worked at the intersection of agriculture and the environment in roles at LEAP, Earthjustice, and the Center for Food Safety. Prior to law school, Thaemert completed a master’s degree in cultural anthropology, focusing her thesis work on the military Superfund site in her Kansas hometown, which inspired her to use the law as a tool for environmental protection.

“Camille, Jaycie and Kathleen bring both enormous talent and contagious enthusiasm to our program,” LEAP Executive Director Viveca Morris said. “Welcoming three new fellows of such a high caliber to LEAP at the same time is truly exciting for our team, and we’re looking forward to the good work they’ll do.”