Cynthia Hanawalt

Cynthia Hanawalt is a Senior Fellow at the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law. An accomplished securities lawyer, Ms. Hanawalt leads the Sabin Center’s work in support of ambitious, durable financial regulation on climate-related risk at the federal and state level. She is affiliated with Columbia Law School and the Initiative for Climate Risk & Resilience Law, a coalition of scholars driving legal innovation in government and the private sector to address the consequences of climate change. She collaborates with a range of investor networks and environmental groups, and writes regularly on issues of financial regulation and policy. She has been quoted in numerous media outlets, including The New York Times.

Prior to joining the Sabin Center, Ms. Hanawalt served as Chief of the Investor Protection Bureau for the New York State Office of the Attorney General, where she led the team charged with enforcing the state’s securities laws. Under her leadership, the Bureau recovered over $850M on behalf of New York investors, and achieved groundbreaking results in electronic trading and cryptocurrency matters. Previously, Ms. Hanawalt was a Partner at the securities law firm Bleichmar Fonti & Auld LLP.

Cynthia also serves as a Trustee and Chair of the Audit Committee of Wave Hill, a public garden and cultural center in the Bronx. She is a graduate of Columbia Law School, where she was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar, and Duke University, where she received the William J. Griffith University Service Award.