Jim Barnes

Jim received his Juris Doctor degree cum laude from the University of Michigan Law School in June 1970 and clerked for US District Judge John Pratt for the next year. In 1971 he joined the legal team at the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) in Washington, DC opposing construction of the Alyeska Pipeline. That case
was won in 1974 when the Supreme Court accepted the Court of Appeals decision blocking the pipeline. Jim served as a Public Defender in Washington, DC in 1972-73, and in Vanuatu in 1974. From 1977-82 he returned to CLASP to work on the International Project, serving as Co-Director in 1981-82. He co-founded the
Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition (ASOC) in 1978, serving for many years as General Counsel and as Executive Director from 2005-14. With Elliot Porter he wrote Let’s Save Antarctica in 1982, a citizens’ handbook for Antarctica to be protected as a World Park. He directed ASOC campaigns for an ‘ecosystem-as-a-whole’ fisheries treaty from 1978-82; against the proposed Minerals Convention from 1982-89; and for an Environmental Protocol to the Antarctic Treaty that banned minerals activities from 1989-98. In 1994 Jim cofounded the CEE Bankwatch Network (BWN) in Krakow, serving as an advisor for the next ten years. Jim helped develop ASOC’s campaign to protect the Ross Sea as the world’s largest Marine Protected Area
starting in 2003. Today he serves ASOC as Board Chair and is a Member of the BWN Review Committee in Prague.