Environmental Regulation and the New Trump Administration: Insights, Anticipated Agenda, Projected Policy Changes

Ms. Fleming advises a wide variety of business, institutional and organizational clients on all aspects of environmental policy, government relations, compliance planning, incident response, subsequent enforcement and litigation matters and special investigations for private and municipal clients. She also advises clients on environment, social and governance (ESG) issues and the impacts climate change can have on business operations. Ms. Fleming spent more than 20 years in the public sector, serving as both an elected and appointed official at the state and local levels, as well as in various branches of the federal government. She served as Principal Legal Advisor (General Counsel) for Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and as Chief of Staff to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) during the Obama Administration. In addition, Ms. Fleming served as the EPA Region 4 (Southeastern Region) Regional Administrator (RA), where she was responsible for establishing and implementing environmental policy, including the principals of environmental justice for eight southeastern states and six federally recognized tribes. Ms. Fleming finalized the Region's Environmental Justice (EJ) Policy (previously stagnated for 10 years), instituted regular environmental justice information sessions with state partners and communities, and created a Regional EJ Interagency Working Group with other federal agencies to strategically and comprehensively address community concerns. Ms. Fleming also instituted the Colleges and Underserved Community Partnership Program (CUPP) which partnered college students with senior federal staff to provide much needed environmental, health and technical services to some of the poorest jurisdictions in their region.

Ms. Malone is head of the firm’s Environmental Group. She helps clients navigate complicated and stringent environmental laws and regulations, advising on environmental risks, liabilities and mitigation strategies in corporate transactions, ESG initiatives and requirements, issues related to complex cleanup efforts and litigation in state and federal courts and administrative proceedings.

Ms. Coppinger focuses her practice on complex environmental litigation, including multi-district and multi-party litigation, pre-litigation counseling, and administrative litigation. She is a team-oriented leader who works with clients to understand their priorities and operations in order to achieve client-driven outcomes. Ms. Coppinger also brings a litigator’s eye to pre-litigation opportunities to reduce risk, including pre-litigation counseling regarding the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and emerging contaminants such as PFAS. Given the high profile nature of much of her work, she has experience working with clients’ executive, legal, public relations, and government relations teams to develop comprehensive strategies.