Steffney R. Thompson

Steffney R. Thompson joined the University of Georgia School of Law as the director of the Land Conservation Clinic in 2023. The clinic is a cooperative effort of UGA’s School of Law and the School of Ecology and works at the nexus of law, science and policy to support and enhance land conservation. Participating law and ecology students collaborate to address the rich web of issues associated with conserving natural and working landscapes and amplifying the public benefits that derive from that protection.

Thompson brings a wealth of experience in environmental law to campus. She worked for the Oconee River Land Trust for approximately 25 years, initially as the land conservation coordinator, before becoming the executive director in 2003. Under her leadership, the Oconee River Land Trust expanded the land conservation and stewardship program to more than 43,000 acres and negotiated over 200 conservation easements. 

No stranger to the university, Thompson previously taught classes at the law school and in the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources on topics of private land conservation and conservation easements and supervised a variety of UGA student projects and interns. She also served three years as a research assistant at the Carl Vinson Institute of Government, where she worked with the Georgia legislature’s science and environmental advisor and created a comprehensive review and analysis of environmental policy and law concerning solid waste and household waste regulation in Georgia.

Early in her career, Thompson was an associate at the Molloy, Jones & Donahue law firm in Tucson, Arizona, where she specialized in environmental and corporate law.

She has served as the secretary of the Association of Georgia Land Trusts since 2020, and she has been a member of the State Bar of Georgia since 1993.

She earned her bachelor’s degree with high distinction and her law degree magna cum laude from the University of Arizona.