Date: April 2023

Emails obtained by The Guardian and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ) indicate that Jody Freeman, an environmental law professor at the Harvard Law School, facilitated a meeting between the Security Exchange Commission (SEC) and ConocoPhillips – an oil company where she serves as a board member since 2012. Freeman stated that the meeting request was done on behalf of another Harvard colleague who was set to become the acting director at the SEC. She maintained that she did not violate the university’s conflict of interest regulations. In March 2023, the company received the green light from the Biden administration for Alaska’s Willow drilling project, worth US$ 8 billion, despite opposition from environmentalists and some Alaskan first nation communities.

In the 2021 email exchange, Professor Freeman vouched for two of the fossil-oil company high-level officials, without mentioning her ties to the oil company – breaching the university’s policy.

Freeman stepped down on (August 2023) from her highly-paid role at ConocoPhillips, following months of growing pressure and public scrutiny. Fossil Fuel Divest Harvard, the student-led activist group that provided the emails to the Guardian and Bureau of Investigative Journalism welcomed Freeman’s resignation.