David is Chair of Preti Flaherty’s Environmental Group and Co-Chair of the Climate Strategy Group. A nationally recognized environmental lawyer with a distinguished career at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in Washington, D.C., David joined Preti Flaherty in 1991. He is a Partner in the Portland office and a former member of the firm’s Management Committee.

He is an active participant in all aspects of the firm’s environmental practice, including litigation, compliance counseling, liability allocations, environmental audits, defense of enforcement actions, project permitting, due diligence in business and lending transactions and environmental risk management.

Prior to joining the EPA, David was a legal policy analyst for Booz-Allen and Hamilton, Inc., in Washington, D.C., where he helped develop policy on civil judicial and administrative enforcement for the EPA’s hazardous waste programs. He also worked for Environmental Research and Technology in Washington as a legislative and policy analyst, focusing on legislative initiatives under the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act.

Honors & Awards

• Chambers USA, Band 1 Environment Lawyer, 2006-Present
• Listed in Best Lawyers in America 2005-Present
• 2020 Lawyer of the Year, Environmental Law
• Martindale-Hubbell® AV Preeminent™ Peer Review Rating
• Listed in New England Super Lawyers
• Fellow – American College of Environmental Lawyers
• Fellow – American Bar Foundation; Maine Bar Foundation

Experience

David represented the EPA at the negotiating table and participated at the highest levels of the agency’s compliance and policy-making efforts. He now offers clients a unique, insider’s view of Federal environmental law based on his extensive EPA experiences:

• As Acting Associate Enforcement Counsel for Superfund and, prior to that, as Deputy Associate Enforcement Counsel for Hazardous Waste, David managed the nationwide implementation of the EPA’s civil judicial enforcement programs under CERCLA and RCRA.
• As Chair of the CERCLA Lender Liability Rule Task Force, David supervised the development of the agency’s lender liability rule and the issuance of the agency’s first prospective purchaser guidance, approving the initial brownfields-type settlements. Upon joining Preti Flaherty, David was instrumental in the passage of Maine legislation creating liability protections for lenders and establishing Maine’s brownfield VRAP program.
• As the EPA’s lead headquarters attorney litigating the precedent-setting U.S. v. Conservation Chemical Superfund cleanup case, involving more than 200 defendants and third-party defendants, David pushed the case to a successful conclusion. The case was one of the first to be litigated under Superfund.
• David’s awards while at the EPA included the Department of Justice Commendation for Outstanding Service; the Assistant Administrator’s Enforcement Award for Excellence; a Silver Medal; two Bronze Medals; and numerous Superior Performance and Outstanding Achievement Awards.

Preti, Flaherty, Beliveau & Pachios, Chartered, LLP

At Preti Flaherty, we’re proud to partner with our clients to create opportunity by thinking differently. With nearly 100 attorneys practicing across many fields of law, we have the foresight and strategic intelligence to work toward outcomes that are not simply expeditious, but which support our clients’ long-term goals and innovative ideas.

The pace of change in environmental regulation and legislation calls for dynamic, forward-thinking advisors and litigators. Preti Flaherty’s Environmental Group is one of New England’s largest and most diversified environmental practices. Our clients include Fortune 500 companies, large, mid-size and small manufacturers, development companies, trade and other associations, regional and local businesses, municipalities and government agencies, as well as individuals. Our environmental litigators, transactional attorneys and regulatory specialists focus on creative, proactive and cost-effective solutions.

Led by a former senior official of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, it also includes a former EPA Regional Attorney, a former U.S. DOJ Environmental Enforcement Section Attorney, and a number of other highly qualified environmental attorneys. This group offers in-depth experience in all phases of federal, state and local administrative and judicial proceedings. We are experienced in air, water and stormwater, and solid/hazardous waste issues, as well as waste management, chemical regulation and land use controls.

Our attorneys are known for their success in obtaining state and federal permits for significant development projects and for providing innovative and money-saving counsel on environmental risk management issues in the transactional context. Our environmental litigators have been extremely successful in defending class action and multiparty toxic tort suits.