Rob Kirsch assisted clients with controversial environmental issues at the intersection of law, science and public policy, and developed strategies to deploy technology to achieve low‑carbon, environmental performance and clean‑energy objectives.

He defended clients in criminal, civil and administrative investigations and enforcement proceedings. His experience included representing a Fortune 100 company in simultaneous criminal and administrative investigations; representing a major government contractor in parallel criminal and civil investigations by the US Department of Justice and the Environmental Protection Agency; negotiating the first global environmental and contract‑based CERCLA settlement between the Departments of Defense and Justice and a federal contractor; and successfully defending a federal contractor—with no penalty—in an EPA investigation under the Clean Air Act.

Mr. Kirsch represented clients involved in scores of CERCLA and state superfund proceedings, including cost‑recovery litigation, allocation disputes, judicial and administrative litigation, state and federal enforcement actions and permit appeals. His recent matters included a precedent‑setting cost‑recovery case through trial and appeal involving shareholder, successor and indemnity claims; a successful three‑year permit modification for a major solid‑waste facility through administrative approval and judicial appeal; and publicly controversial and heavily litigated proceedings involving the relicensing and later transfer of a nuclear energy facility.

Managing high‑profile issues for clients was a significant focus of his practice. He represented proponents of facilities before state and federal agencies, developed permit and permit‑appeal strategies under state and federal clean‑air laws, defended IPP operators in administrative and civil proceedings, challenged and defended administrative decisions in judicial appeals, and represented development clients facing claims of coastal damage.

He also advised industrial and research‑and‑development clients using state and federal self‑disclosure policies and participated in disclosures involving more than 100 locations across the United States. He served as common counsel in multiple Superfund proceedings, leading common‑defense efforts involving more than 1,000 parties, and secured 25 years of positive cash flow for one CERCLA client group by helping to build the first solar energy facility on a CERCLA landfill site.

Between 2004 and 2015, Mr. Kirsch led a WilmerHale pro bono team representing six men held at the US Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay. That team prevailed before the United States Supreme Court (Boumediene v. Bush), the federal district court in the first Guantanamo‑related habeas corpus trial in the United States (November 2008), and the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (2010)—earning the only ruling that court had issued in favor of a Guantanamo prisoner out of more than 20 such decisions. In 2009, he negotiated the first resettlement from Guantanamo to an EU country where the detainee was not a citizen. All six WilmerHale clients were ultimately freed.

Professional Activities

Mr. Kirsch was a fellow of the American College of Environmental Lawyers.

He chaired the Board of the Environmental Law Institute, served as Immediate Past President of the Board of Trustees of the Mount Washington Observatory, chaired the New Hampshire Board of Trustees of the Nature Conservancy, and served as Chair of the Mount Washington Commission. 

Speaking Engagements

• French Cultural Center Stage Reading - "Peur(s)" (a play inspired by Supreme Court case Boumediene v. Bush) with WilmerHale and Barclay Damon, Boston (May 12, 2017)
• ALI/ABA Impact of Environmental Law Conference (April 19-20, 2013)
• ALI CLE Hydraulic Fracturing (Podcast) (October 2012)
• Barnstable County Bar Association Annual Meeting: “Boumediene v. Bush - Habeas Corpus and the War on Terror” (June 2012)
• Lawrence Bar Association Law Day 2011: “Pro Bono Service - John Adams to Guantanamo” (April 29, 2011)
• ALI/ABA Impact of Environmental Law Conference, Washington DC (October 14-15, 2010)
• Office of Military Commission: “Practical Steps to Leverage Your Advocacy for Your GTMO Clients” (June 10, 2010)
• Red River Theatres Law Day: The Response: “The First Guantanamo Habeas Trial - Boumediene v. Bush” (May 13, 2010)
• EU Human Rights/Death Penalty Counselors Meeting: “Procedural Opportunities and Obstacles for Vindicating the Constitutional Rights of Guantanamo Prisoners” (April 14, 2010)
• New Jersey Institute for Continuing Legal Education: “ISRA/Site Remediation Reform Act” (May 7, 2008)
• ALI/ABA Impact of Environmental Law Conference, Boston (October 203, 2008)
• Vermont Bar Association: "Confronting the Hard Edge of War: Representing Guantanamo Prisoners" (June 27, 2008)
• Franklin Pierce Law School: “Boumediene v. Bush On Writ of Certiorari Argued 12/5/2007” (December 2007)
• WilmerHale Nine Zeros Breakfast Forum, Washington DC (February 22, 2007)
• The Massachusetts Nanotech Exchange Nine Zeros Breakfast Forum, Boston (October 4, 2004)