Danjelle Midgley

Attorney

Danjelle is an attorney in the Activist Support and Training programme at the Centre for Environmental Rights. She has practiced as an environmental lawyer for over 10 years and joined the Centre in 2019 as the Environmental Law Specialist. As part of her programme work, Danjelle regularly provides training workshops on a range on Constitutional and environmental law topics, conducts legal research on issues affecting communities and supports the work of environmental justice activists across South Africa. Danjelle is also responsible for monitoring and knowledge dissemination as well as parliamentary liaison. Danjelle is currently pursuing her doctorate with research focused on climate justice litigation strategies.

Danjelle holds a BMus (Jazz Composition), an LLB and an LLM (specialising in Environmental Law) from the University of Cape Town. Her Masters dissertation was on biodiversity offsets in South African environmental law. As part of her LLM, Danjelle spent a semester at the University of Maryland in Baltimore (USA).

Danjelle completed her articles in 2016 at Cullinan & Associates Inc, a specialist environmental law firm in Cape Town. As an associate attorney, Danjelle was very involved in litigation representing AmaPondo communities in the Wild Coast opposing the construction of a highway through the communities’ lands.

Danjelle has experience in the water, waste, air quality, biodiversity and coastal sectors as well as customary and administrative law. She is passionate about environmental justice and the realisation of the Constitutional right to an environment that is not harmful to health or well-being.

In her spare time, Danjelle plays in a jazz band called The Lady Day Big Band which is South Africa’s first all-female big band. Danjelle also enjoys being in nature, especially through hiking and trail running. She loves animals and the ocean and would one day like to be able to grow all her own veggies in a garden.

dmidgley[@]cer.org.za