Urias S. Goll, Esq.

Mr. Urias Goll is a legal, environmental, and natural resources practitioner. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Biology from the University of Liberia, Master’s Degree in Environmental Economics and Management from the University of York (England) and Bachelor of Law (LLB Hons) from Liberia’s only accredited law school – Louis Arthur Grimes School of Law (University of Liberia). Over the last 16 years, He worked as Administrative Coordinator for the National Climate Change Secretariat, a role that required him to coordinate the activities of the REDD+ Technical Working Group and co-authored the Liberia Preparation Proposal (R-PP) for REDD+ development in Liberia. He also served as head (manager) of the environmental and safety team at the National Oil Company of Liberia for 5 years before transitioning into the role as Deputy Executive Director of the Environmental Protection Agency of Liberia. 

Before moving to the EPA, Mr. Goll consulted for the UNDP-Liberia office on assessing the capacity gaps and barriers for Nationally Agreed Mitigation Actions (NAMAs) in Liberia and co-authored the current National Climate Change Policy and Strategy of Liberia.  Following his time at the EPA, he consulted for the Government of Liberia as an environmental and social safeguard lead for the World Bank Bank Post-Ebola Recovery Project. Thereafter, he joined the German consulting firm Hydroplan Ingenieur-Gesellschaft mbH as an environmental health and safety advisor on its World Bank Liberia Urban Water Supply project.              

Upon graduating from law school in 2018 as valedictorian of his class and securing the highest national average on the National Bar exam, he joined the CMB Law Group, LLC as an Associate Attorney leading the firm’s environmental law and extractive industry practice. While at the law firm, he consulted privately for many conservation and environmental organizations including 1) Wild Chimpanzee Foundation on assessing legal provisions for natural resource management in Liberia; 2) Fauna and Flora on legal review on biodiversity offset requirements and the mitigation hierarchy for the extractive industry; 3) Conservation International on the rights of community to carbon resources and benefits; 4) UNDP to review and redraft the Environmental Protection Agency Act. In 2020, Mr. Goll served as the lead national counsel amongst a team of international lawyers supporting the Government of Liberia on the amendment and restatement of the Wildlife Conservation and Protected Area Management Law of Liberia.    

Currently, Mr. Goll works for EcoHealth Alliance, as Deputy Chief of Party for the USAID-funded Conservation Works, a program dedicated to enhancing economic prosperity of communities through biodiversity conservation. While in this role, Mr. Goll lectures, part-time, at the University of Liberia Graduate Program on Environmental Law and Policy. 

Mr. Goll is versed in rights-based approach to biodiversity conservation, environmental reporting and analysis, legal research and litigation, environmental valuation, project planning and management, environmental and social impacts assessment (ESIA), climate change policy and strategy formulation, and stakeholders (community) engagement.