Energy, Environment and Natural Resources

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Energy, Environment and Natural Resources

With lawyers across the United States and in key international locations, our team handles high-stakes matters before the regulatory and enforcement agencies with energy and environmental oversight.

Our lawyers draw on a long history in environmental law, energy project financing and permitting, public land use, climate change policy, and environmental justice to solve complex challenges. Clients depend on our legal skill and insight from government service to achieve their objectives, and they also depend on our industry and technical understanding—we have represented entities from a wide range of industries, including oil and gas, renewable energy, gas and electric transmission and distribution, mining, recreation, aviation, defense, real estate, education, life sciences and pharmaceuticals, and financial services.

We help these clients to manage environmental enforcement and other litigation challenges; to develop and permit energy production, transmission, and generation projects in the renewable, oil and gas, and nuclear sectors; and to navigate an increasingly complex regulatory playing field, including on matters related to climate change and environmental justice. Our team, which includes former high-ranking officials at the US Interior and Defense Departments, and the US Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division, is well prepared to assist clients in government investigations and to respond to other facets of high-profile crises. 

Seamless Service. Clients depend on us to tackle complex disputes and policy challenges because we offer a comprehensive, integrated and efficient approach. Our environmental lawyers partner with trial and appellate teams if litigation cannot be negotiated or settled to an acceptable resolution. And with strong corporate, public policy and legislative practices, we bring a deep understanding of the business objectives and regulatory landscapes that drive clients’ decisions and shape their industries. Harnessing insights from across these disciplines, we develop comprehensive strategies that reflect clients’ budgets, needs and priorities.

Key Contacts

Meet Our Team

Areas of Focus

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Experience

  • Helping clients develop, enhance and audit corporate compliance programs, providing guidance related to voluntary self-disclosures under applicable federal and state audit policies when appropriate.
  • Advising companies in closely regulated industries, including pharmaceuticals, on a variety of environmental permitting, compliance and enforcement issues in connection with research, manufacturing and laboratory operations, including the redevelopment of a 1.5-million-square-foot campus.
  • Advising renewable energy companies in the development, financing and operation of solar generation, onshore and offshore wind generation, and biofuel production facilities throughout the United States. We have secured federal, state and county land use approvals for nearly 4,000 megawatts of wind energy, including more than 1,000 megawatts in eastern Colorado.
  • Representing clients in connection with licensing and permitting to construct, operate, expand and decommission publicly controversial facilities in the nuclear energy, waste management, retail and recycling sectors.
  • Representing ski areas across the United States as public lands, National Environmental Policy Act, federal regulatory and land use counsel.
  • Representing seven national, state and local environmental and conservation groups as parties to the successful mediation and settlement of the 30-year-long Black Canyon of the Gunnison water rights litigation.
  • Representing several state entities in energy and environmental regulatory issues in connection with the proposed conversion of that state’s existing generation fleet from oil-based fuels to natural gas, compliance with the Environmental Protection Agency’s mercury and air toxics standards, and the proposed construction of a liquefied natural gas import facility.
  • Defending a financial services company against electric market manipulation charges asserted by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
  • Representing clients in numerous Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act and analogous state-led enforcement proceedings throughout the United States, including the defense and prosecution of cost-recovery claims and designation as common counsel at numerous multiparty sites.
  • Representing clients in diverse matters relating to hydraulic fracturing, including monitoring and advocating in federal and state regulatory proceedings, defending personal injury and property damage claims, and evaluating risk associated with waste management and disposal.

Recognition

  • U.S. News - Best Lawyers®—Included WilmerHale on its 2021 “Best Law Firms” list in the first tier for environmental law nationally and in Boston, Colorado and Washington DC.
  • Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business—Ranks many of the team’s lawyers across litigation categories and ranks practice leader Peggy Otum in Environment – California. One client notes “her robust command of the law and the nuances, as well as the political dimensions of negotiations.” Others praise her ability to “handle matters with strength and diplomatic skill.”
  • Best Lawyers in America—Many of the practice’s lawyers are regularly selected by peers for recognition as premier environmental lawyers.
  • American College of Environmental Lawyers—This prestigious organization selected Peggy Otum and Rachel Jacobson for membership in 2020.
  • The Legal 500 United States—Has recommended WilmerHale in the areas of Environment, Regulatory and Energy: Regulatory: Conventional Power and Oil and Gas.

Insights & News

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