Eva poses in front of the Hawaiʻi Supreme Courthouse and the statue of King Kamehameha I.

ELP alumni Eva Müller ʻ24 sat down with ELP RA Malia Taylor-Wolfe ʻ25 to discuss Eva’s path to Richardson, her experience in insolvency and restructuring law, its relationship to climate law, and the lessons she learned while at Richardson.

Eva received a Swiss Bachelor and Master in Law in both German and French from the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. She was originally drawn to law because she wanted to pursue a career in international diplomacy and politics. During law school, however, Eva discovered other areas of the law that fascinated her. She was eventually hired as a summer intern in a large corporate law firm in Zurich, working in insolvency and restructuring law. She was pleasantly surprised by the experience. “It was really fun,” Eva said, “because each case is different, you get to do a lot of different areas of law and learn much in a short time.” 

After finishing law school and passing the bar exam in 2020, Eva worked as an associate in the same corporate law firm for a few years, specializing in insolvency and restructuring law. While she enjoyed this work, she has had a deep appreciation for nature and the environment since her childhood. Hence, Eva decided to go back to school and follow her passion: environmental law. Despite being accepted by two T14 law schools, Eva chose to continue her education at our very own William S. Richardson School of Law. “Hawaiʻi was actually my first choice,” Eva gushed, “People in Hawaiʻi have a very special bond to the place they live in and I knew that studying environmental law here would be a unique experience. I wanted to be able to walk out of the classroom and see why I’m pursuing environmental law.”

Eva visits Kalalau Valley, in the Nāpali Coast State Park on Kaua‘i’s west coast.

During her first semester, Eva dove headfirst into the pool of environmental law courses offered at Richardson. She explored topics in environmental and climate law, acting as a “sponge” and soaking up all the knowledge she could. She was particularly intrigued by Domestic Ocean and Coastal Law with Professor David Forman ʻ93. “I have always been fascinated by the ocean and marine life. But we don’t have an ocean in my country, so being so close to the ocean and learning about it was very fascinating,” she said.

Throughout her experience at Richardson, Eva remained interested in the corporate law angle. “Corporate responsibility and the need for change is a big part of the climate change discussion. I think there’s a lot of potential in working with corporations because they can often make the biggest shifts.” During her time at Richardson, Eva used the intersectionality of her interests to write a paper exploring climate change as an insolvency risk for companies. “My goal with this research is to change the narrative about climate change in the corporate world. I think a lot of people still underestimate the effects of climate change, but it’s important to understand that it’s not just a political opinion. The impacts of climate change not only affect people in their daily lives, but it can also influence a company’s performance or financial position.” She has been invited to present her work at an insolvency conference in Italy in October. She also recently published an article on a similar topic in the Swiss Bar Association’s journal, highlighting open questions about the impact of climate change on Swiss insolvency and restructuring law.

Asked if she had any final thoughts on her experience at Richardson, Eva said, “What I like about Richardson is that students are very open to sharing their views and ideas, which creates a stimulating but respectful exchange. The school challenges students to think critically and express their opinions. Richardson emphasizes its unique Hawaiian values and history, and I think that’s something that makes the school, and particularly its environmental law program, very strong.”

MTW