Sarah Burton, a formidable legal and environmental campaigner who held senior roles at Greenpeace and Amnesty International, has died of cancer of the appendix at the age of 73.
A fearless legal career dedicated to justice
Born in New York to accountant Henrietta and garment worker Irving Novak, Sarah moved to Britain in the early 1970s. She worked as a legal secretary while taking evening classes to qualify as a solicitor, which she achieved in 1980. Her career was marked by a series of bold, strategic legal victories.
In the late 1970s, she joined the law firm Seifert Sedley after impressing them with her work for the Seymour Place Co-operative in London. During the 1980 inquest into the death of Blair Peach, she successfully secured a High Court order to halt proceedings and compel the coroner to sit with a jury.
In the mid-1980s, alongside her law partner Mike Seifert, she coordinated legal representation for thousands of striking miners, fighting off countless injunctions. It was during this period she gave birth to her daughter, Hannah, and received a large bouquet from the miners' leader, Arthur Scargill.
Driving environmental change from within Greenpeace
Sarah Burton's impact shifted decisively to the environmental movement in 1990 when she became the first in-house lawyer for Greenpeace UK. Her legal ingenuity was pivotal. When British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) obtained an injunction to stop Greenpeace UK from blocking nuclear waste dumping in the Irish Sea, Sarah devised a clever solution.
She advised that activists from outside the UK, who were not bound by British courts, could lawfully block the waste pipe. Her strategy proved correct and was a testament to her innovative approach to legal activism.
After leaving Greenpeace UK in 2002, she worked as an independent consultant before joining Amnesty International in 2006 as campaign programme director. From 2009 to 2018, she managed senior programme staff at Greenpeace International in Amsterdam.
A legacy of mentorship and personal courage
Sarah's courage extended beyond the courtroom. In 2009, she travelled to Sumatra where illegal logging threatened a local community. Surrounded by armed soldiers and asked to bring what she would on a camping trip, she famously retorted, “A hotel reservation?” She asked the community if they wished to stay or move; when they chose to stay, she insisted Greenpeace remain with them. The soldiers eventually withdrew.
Though renowned for her professional bravery, Sarah was personally proudest of mentoring young women activists, many of whom have gone on to lead within Greenpeace and other major non-governmental organisations.
In her retirement after 2018, she moved to Bridport, Dorset, in 2020, embracing painting and steel drumming. A founder of Lawyers for Nuclear Disarmament, she also served on the boards of Natural England, English Nature, and the Public Law Project.
After twenty years together, she and her partner celebrated a civil partnership in April of this year. She is survived by her partner, her daughter Hannah, and her brother Milton.
