Deepa Padmanabha

Deepa comes to AFJ from a lengthy and storied career at Greenpeace USA where, for ten years, she served as the lead in-house attorney focused on defending Greenpeace USA from two massive lawsuits designed to silence the organization’s advocacy work. She brings deep expertise in working across organizational teams to answer the question “How can we continue to do our work/advance our mission even during these existential threats?” We believe this makes her the perfect person to fulfill this pivotal new role. Fate seemed to agree when, as she was looking towards a new challenge after fourteen years total at Greenpeace, she stumbled upon the listing for the AFJ Law Director. It was exactly what she wanted to do: take the lessons learned at Greenpeace and apply them to the broader movement.

Deepa was also deeply involved with defending against the legal attacks targeting Greenpeace’s solidarity around the resistance at Standing Rock over the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. In so doing, she worked hard to protect the right to speak out and protest. She knew, too, that the movement faced huge challenges — and wanted Greenpeace to answer the question: “What does success look like – outside the courtroom? How do we build a stronger Greenpeace and a stronger movement?” This was vital to building a coalition to ensure wins happen outside the courtroom so that these attacks on advocacy would not only be seen as a losing tactic but would also backfire by galvanizing the movement. At a time when traditional “victories” may be elusive, understanding how to continue to build power and strengthen the field is crucial, and this is something we believe Deepa brings to this role.

About her new role, Deepa says: “I’m deeply honored to join the AFJ team and contribute to strengthening the defense of our movements during a critical time of escalating attacks.”

Deepa lives in Takoma Park, MD, and in her free time she does cartwheels with her kids and bakes desserts.