Egypt’s Only Public Interest Environmental Lawyer Visits Eugene

Ahmed Elseidi. PHOTO: Todd Cooper, Eugene Weekly

Ahmed Elseidi recently returned home to Cairo after completing a 10-week ELAW Fellowship. This was his first visit to the U.S.

Yesterday, the Eugene Weekly reported on Ahmed’s work:

Raised as the son of a lawyer, Ahmed Elseidi grew up surrounded by legal lingo and strategies. Coming from a position where being a lawyer was at his fingertips, Elseidi took a slightly different approach — becoming the only public interest environmental lawyer in Egypt. 

Elseidi had few people to guide him through the country’s environmental challenges. “When I started there wasn’t any environmental lawyer in Egypt, but I think now I have young lawyers that can learn more about what I do,” he says.

Unlike the U.S., Egypt lacks advanced legal education courses that detail environmental rights and justice, hindering citizens from understanding the severity of their country’s issues, Elseidi says. He noticed during law school in Cairo that there were no specialty courses in environmental law and, on a larger scale, no implementation of the laws Egypt did have…

Elseidi decided that environmental law was his chosen path and that he wanted to work with the next generation of lawyers to ensure he would no longer be the only environmental lawyer in Egypt. He founded his own practice, Ahmed Elseidi Law Firm…tackling climate change, stopping the cutting of Cairo’s street trees and fighting pollution from cement factories…

He came to Oregon April 1 through the Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide fellows program and enrolled in a 10-week intensive English program and collaborated with colleagues from around the world. 

Elseidi met judges from the Wayne L. Morse Courthouse and toured the Greenhill Humane Society to learn more about how the community responds to stray and abandoned animals. He also practiced his English at the University of Oregon’s American English Institute. He collaborated with fellow environmental lawyers and learned about plans and legislation happening in other countries. 

We enjoyed working with Ahmed and look forward to building on our work with him.

Find the Eugene Weekly online to read more about Ahmed and his work protecting communities and the environment in Egypt, through law.

Maggie Keenan
Communications Director & Fellows Program Coordinator
Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide

P.S. If you are a Eugene area resident and wish to host an ELAW Fellow, or if you have any questions about the Fellows Program, please contact me.

Eugene Weekly. June 29, 2023.
Egypt’s Only Public Interest Environmental Lawyer Visits Eugene.