An environmental and regulatory attorney with decades of senior government experience, Doug helps clients navigate complex environmental regulatory issues and is an experienced, effective expert witness.
Doug counsels companies across industries on some of the most consequential issues in energy and environmental law, including climate change and environmental justice. He also has particular expertise in PFAS and other emerging contaminants, advising clients on state and federal matters, from navigating a growing patchwork of state bans to working with passive receivers on federal legislation. He helps clients develop permitting and compliance strategies and represents them in enforcement actions and rulemaking proceedings before state and federal agencies. His experience as a senior executive at Xcel Energy gives him a corporate perspective on the challenges companies face navigating overlapping and often competing regulatory regimes.
Doug's perspective is shaped by high-level leadership roles at federal and state environmental agencies, including serving as the EPA's Acting Deputy Administrator and Administrator of EPA Region 8. He spent almost a decade on Capitol Hill, advising members of Congress on environmental and natural resource legislation. He also served as the Executive Director of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. This experience across federal, state, and legislative venues gives Doug a firsthand vantage point on how environmental rules are written, implemented, and enforced.
His government and private sector experience make Doug an effective expert witness. He has served in matters spanning tort, insurance, and state regulatory proceedings, bringing courts and clients a rare combination of agency-side credibility and practical knowledge of environmental standards and enforcement.
As a member of the firm's Environmental, Energy, and Federal Affairs teams, Doug helps clients assess federal priorities, opportunities, and risks, and build strategies to advance their objectives with Congress and executive branch agencies. Drawing on his years on Capitol Hill and at EPA, along with longstanding relationships with regulators and legislators across the Mountain West and in Washington, D.C., he helps clients anticipate regulatory and legislative developments and advocate for solutions through legislative, regulatory, and administrative channels.