Julie Goodwin is a senior attorney in the Midwest Regional Office, based in Chicago, Illinois. Having lived in and explored the Midwest her entire life, Julie is passionate about protecting the region’s treasures, including the Great Lakes, the upper Mississippi River, and the Boundary Waters in northern Minnesota. Her work involves litigation to protect vulnerable ecosystems from threats such as mining and herbicide exposure, as well as advocacy to oppose pipeline infrastructure projects that threaten the region’s waterways and exacerbate a continued reliance on fossil fuels. Julie is very active with state and federal advocacy efforts to shut down the Line 5 oil pipeline that runs through the Straits of Mackinac and threatens Lakes Michigan and Huron and the fisheries, medicinal plants, species, and places that are sacred to the Tribal communities.

Prior to joining Earthjustice in October 2021, Julie spent over a decade at a nationally recognized civil rights law firm in Chicago where her practice was focused on litigating claims pursuant to Section 1983 of the Civil Rights Act. She successfully represented clients in matters involving all aspects of police misconduct, including wrongful convictions, as well as in class actions involving child advocacy, prisoners’ rights, and environmental justice issues. Julie graduated from the University of Illinois Chicago School of Law (formerly known as The John Marshall Law School) in 2008.