Bonnie Holligan holds a Ph.D. (2015), LL.M. by research (2010) and an LL.B. (2008) from the University of Edinburgh. She joined the University of Sussex in 2014. From 2008-2009 Bonnie worked as a legal assistant at the Scottish Law Commission, where she was involved with law reform projects on land registration and the law relating to level crossings.

Bonnie leads the UK Earth Law Judgments Project (with Dr Helen Dancer). Her other research projects include a project on how legal structures have shaped experiences of urban growing spaces during the Covid-19 pandemic (with Dr Helena Howe) and an interdisciplinary research project on soil carbon sequestration (with Professor Dave Goulson and Dr Chris Sandom in the School of Life Sciences).

Bonnie is a board member of the Modern Studies in Property Law research network. At Sussex, she is a member of the Programme Management Group of the Sussex Sustainability Research Programme (SSRP).She convenes an interdisciplinary research cluster, the Rights and Justice research cluster, and also participates in a number of research clusters and activities within the Law department, in particular the Property and Environment research cluster. She is part of an interdisciplinary research network that has grown out of the SSRP, the Sussex Sustainability Observatory.

In 2016, Bonnie was awarded fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (now Advance HE).

Bonnie leads the Citizens Advice Law Clinic (a collaboration with Citizens Advice West Sussex) and the new Environmental Justice Law Clinic (in collaboration with the Environmental Law Foundation).