Our Practice
The Firm’s Environment and Natural Resources Practice offers legal and strategic counseling on a full range of environmental and natural resources matters that arise in the context of:
- Regulatory Approvals and Compliance Counseling
- Investigations, Enforcement Proceedings, and Litigation
- Business Transactions and Project Development
- Government Relations
Specifically, the Firm offers counsel on strategies for securing regulatory approvals, ensuring compliance with the law, managing internal and government investigations, responding to civil and criminal enforcement proceedings, conducting litigation, and otherwise addressing instances of non-compliance.
The Firm’s CEO, Ignacia S. Moreno, leads the Environment and Natural Resources Practice. Ignacia is a nationally recognized leader in the field of environmental and natural resources law, and served as the Assistant Attorney General for the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the United States Department of Justice from 2009 to 2013. She is a former Counsel for the Northeast/Midwest Regions and International in Corporate Environmental Programs at the General Electric Company and has practiced law at two prominent Washington, D.C. law firms, including as a Partner. Her combination of public, corporate, and private sector experience gives her a unique 360-degree perspective on complex environmental and natural resources matters. Ignacia has an insider’s knowledge and experience on how to navigate federal, state, and local regulatory and enforcement processes. She is agile at devising and implementing creative and concrete solutions to highly complex and multi-faceted environmental and natural resources issues. She has a proven record of excellence in a wide array of significant matters in her area of practice both domestically and abroad. She is known for getting things done.
Regulatory Approvals and Compliance Counseling
Businesses must ensure that they are in compliance with all federal, state, and local environmental regulatory requirements. This is a challenge because of the sheer number and complexity of legal requirements that can apply to all aspects of business operations and the waste streams emitted into the air, land, and water from manufacturing and production activities. Businesses, governmental entities, and tribal governments must often manage costly and lengthy permitting and/or permit renewal processes. Legal challenges can prove daunting.
The Firm offers representation on regulatory and compliance issues that arise under a wide range of environmental laws such as the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA or Superfund), Safe Drinking Water Act, and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), among others. We offer legal and strategic counsel at all stages of business operations, such as: strategic planning; permit approval and renewal; pre-construction and construction phases; permit and other regulatory compliance; auditing and corporate compliance programs; environment, health and safety; monitoring and reporting; waste management and disposal; investigations; and administrative resolutions.
We also offer advice and counsel to clients on how best to prepare for and respond to incidents of noncompliance that prove unavoidable. Companies that respond proactively to incidents of non-compliance are in the best position to negotiate win-win solutions with government regulators and prosecutors. In addition, we offer counsel on the development and implementation of systems to identify, respond to, correct, and report incidents of noncompliance.
Investigations, Enforcement Proceedings, and Litigation
Federal and state regulators will continue to press forward on enforcement of environmental and natural resources laws, despite budget constraints and other emerging priorities. The Firm’s Principals have extensive experience representing companies, government entities, and individuals in federal and state courts and before administrative agencies. We offer representation to clients in federal and state investigations, civil and criminal enforcement proceedings, and affirmative and defensive litigation relating to environmental and natural resources matters. A focus of the Firm’s practice is to advise clients on proactive strategies to minimize and manage enforcement and litigation risks, including in response to investigations, administrative and enforcement proceedings, and litigation. We partner with other firms on large-scale litigation matters, as well as on matters requiring expertise in the federal agency enforcement process.
Ignacia has been a litigator throughout her career, and has personally handled and managed highly complex litigation in private practice and at the Department of Justice where she oversaw a docket of 7,000 civil, criminal, defensive, and appellate cases. For example, as the Assistant Attorney General for the Environment and Natural Resources Division, she led the Division’s successful litigation of matters arising from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Ignacia also oversaw and participated in other nationally significant cases and matters arising under environmental and natural resources laws such as the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Oil Pollution Act, Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, Superfund, NEPA, and Indian law. Ignacia currently provides legal advice and strategic counseling on a range of issues in connection with a highly complex multi-party Superfund sediment mega site, including on litigation, settlement, and responsible party strategies, management of regulatory and administrative agency enforcement processes, and expert witness testimony.
Business Transactions and Project Development
Companies engaging in business transactions and projects frequently risk exposure to significant environmental liabilities. When the business transaction or project is located abroad, additional opportunities and risks must be assessed and managed, including compliance with domestic and foreign laws and regulations. We offer clients a proactive and integrated approach to project development designed to anticipate and avoid delays in regulatory approvals, garner public support, and manage disputes before they arise. Early and meaningful community engagement is a given. The advice of experienced and trusted counsel is essential to assuring that projects proceed with public support in a timely and environmentally sound manner.
The Firm offers comprehensive environmental due diligence reviews to identify and evaluate potential liabilities under environmental and natural resources statutes in the context of business transactions. For transactions involving large-scale energy, industrial, transportation, infrastructure and other development projects and investments, we offer advice on environmental impact analysis, mitigation strategies, project scoping and environmental program development requirements to obtain governmental approval and public support for projects.
With the specialized knowledge and experience of the Firm’s Principals, we can play an instrumental role in working with regulators and communities to facilitate project completion in a cost-effective, expedited, and environmentally sound manner. Special considerations apply when evaluating environmental and natural resources issues in the context of projects located abroad, such as in Mexico, Colombia, other countries in Latin America, and the Caribbean. Understanding regulatory, legal, and cultural differences between the United States and countries in Latin America is essential. Given our personal and professional contacts with Latin America, we are uniquely suited for this work.
Government Relations Practice
Increasingly, corporate clients are seeking Washington, D.C. counsel with access to key decision makers. The most valued counsel are often those who have served at the highest levels of government at federal agencies. Expertise, sound judgment, trust and discretion are key for an advocate to be heard and to be effective.
With decades of service at the Department of Justice, Firm counsel have earned the trust and respect of senior political and career government officials both in the federal and state governments. We have forged strong and enduring bonds with key decision makers at federal agencies throughout the government, such as at EPA and the Departments of Justice, Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Energy, Homeland Security, Interior, and with counterparts in state governments. We know who to call to get a fair hearing. We understand how decisions are made in Washington, and we can help clients successfully navigate federal government processes.
