My partner, Sarah Burton, who has died of cancer of the appendix aged 73, was a formidable legal and environmental activist. She held senior roles at Greenpeace UK, Greenpeace International and Amnesty International.
She joined the law firm of Seifert Sedley in the late 1970s, after impressing them with her negotiating skills for the Seymour Place Co-operative, in London. During the 1980 Blair Peach inquest, Sarah secured a high court order stopping proceedings and requiring the coroner to sit with a jury.
In the mid-80s, with her law partner Mike Seifert, she coordinated representation for thousands of striking miners and fought off countless injunctions. During the strike, she gave birth to her daughter, Hannah, receiving a large bouquet from Arthur Scargill.
Born in New York to Henrietta (nee Berman), an accountant, and Irving Novak, a garment worker who owned his own business, Sarah went to Long Beach high school, Long Island. She moved to Britain in the early 70s, worked as a legal secretary, and took evening classes to become a solicitor; she qualified in 1980. She married Rick Burton in 1973 and they divorced amicably three years later, remaining friends.
In 1990, Sarah joined Greenpeace UK as their first in-house lawyer. When British Nuclear Fuels obtained an injunction preventing Greenpeace UK from stopping BNFL dumping nuclear waste into the Irish Sea, Sarah advised that foreign activists – not bound by UK courts – could lawfully block BNFL’s wastepipe. She was right. She left in 2002 and became an independent consultant for a number of NGOs and charities; in 2006 she joined Amnesty International as campaign programme director.
From 2009 to 2018 she managed senior programme staff at Greenpeace International, in Amsterdam. In 2009 she travelled to Sumatra, where illegal logging threatened a local community. When told to bring whatever she would take on a camping trip, she replied: “A hotel reservation?” Surrounded by armed soldiers, she asked the community whether they wanted to move or stay. They chose to stay, and she insisted Greenpeace stay with them. In time, the soldiers withdrew.
Sarah retired in 2018 and we moved to Bridport, Dorset, in 2020, where she embraced 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.
Though known for her courage, Sarah was proudest of mentoring young women activists who went on to lead within Greenpeace and other NGOs. After 20 years together we celebrated our civil partnership in April.
She is survived by me, her daughter, Hannah, and her brother, Milton.
