Holland & Hart LLP

Holland & Hart is one of the premier environmental law firms in the country, and a key ingredient of our extensive environmental support for clients is the depth and breadth of our National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) practice. Our attorneys assist clients with cutting-edge NEPA issues, including analyses of potential impacts of climate change in NEPA reviews, cumulative impact analyses, application of NEPA to new renewable energy projects and technologies, and strategic consideration of the environmental impacts of oil and gas, coal, and other traditional energy projects. In particular, Holland & Hart helps clients set and follow successful NEPA compliance strategies – from the earliest stage of project planning to the final stage of litigation.

We have broad NEPA administrative and litigation experience. This includes successfully defending NEPA challenges to oil and gas, mining, renewable energy, pipeline, transmission, water, highway construction, communication, and other projects. We work with a variety of NEPA clients including Fortune 500 companies, government contractors, state and local governments, Indian tribes, and individual landowners.

Our attorneys have represented project proponents and permittees intervening to defend agency NEPA compliance, and direct NEPA defendants such as state transportation agencies. We have also successfully represented clients that have challenged projects subject to NEPA. This range of experience provides a unique perspective from which to counsel our clients on NEPA compliance issues. We have recently handled NEPA matters across the country, including in California, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and the District of Columbia. See the experience tab below for a sampling of Holland & Hart's NEPA cases and representations.

With 15 offices throughout the Mountain West and in Washington D.C., Holland & Hart is particularly well poised to counsel clients with projects nationwide. Our attorneys have spent years building professional relationships with federal agency staff who administer the NEPA process at local, state, and national levels. These include key NEPA officials at the Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, U.S. Department of Defense (including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

We counsel clients proactively and advocate for them--and their projects—prior to and during the NEPA review process, not just when litigation commences. Holland & Hart has represented clients on NEPA compliance for a wide range of agency approvals and decisions, including special use permits, rights-of-way, mineral leases, mining plans of operation, geothermal plans of utilization, mitigation plans, hydropower licenses, marine hydrokinetic energy licenses, Endangered Species Act habitat conservation plans, Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act permits, regulation of genetically modified crops, and more.

Our team of nationally recognized NEPA practitioners includes the following:  

• A lawyer who has served as counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, counsel to the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ—the executive agency that writes the rules for NEPA compliance), advisor to the CEQ’s Task Force on Modernizing NEPA Implementation, and chair of the National Environmental Conflict Resolution Advisory Committee;
• Two former assistant attorneys general to the U.S. Department of Justice Environment and Natural Resources Division (DOJ/ENRD);
• Two former solicitors of the U.S. Department of the Interior;
• A former general counsel of the U.S. Department of Agriculture; and
• A 30-year veteran of the appellate section at DOJ/ENRD.

Collectively, our attorneys have handled hundreds of NEPA cases in the federal district and circuit courts across the country, before the Interior Board of Land Appeals, and before administrative bodies for other federal agencies. Our lawyers are frequent speakers, guest lecturers, and writers on NEPA and other environmental law topics at universities, law schools, and CLE programs across the country.

Holland & Hart's Statement of Commitment to Diversity
We are proud of our tradition of fostering and maintaining a work environment in which the diversity of each individual is valued and celebrated. We believe that the contributions of each individual are essential to our continued growth and to our ultimate goal of providing excellent quality legal services to our clients, with greater creativity and innovation. We are committed to taking full advantage of the rich backgrounds and abilities of our people and to promoting a greater diversity whenever and wherever possible.

Diversity Pledge
Holland & Hart is committed to promoting diversity by:

• Making every possible effort to recruit, hire, retain, and promote diverse persons at all levels of employment.
• Promoting greater sensitivity to the value of racial, ethnic and other forms of diversity, through diversity and sensitivity coaching or training for law firm members.
• Inviting to partnership diverse attorneys who meet the requisite criteria.

Diversity Initiatives
The following are additional examples of our commitment and efforts toward supporting and achieving diversity:

• We make a conscious effort to ensure that women and diverse attorneys are included as voting members of our committees of importance within the firm.
• We work closely with law school deans and placement directors in an effort to identify women and diverse law students who are interested in working at Holland & Hart.
• Holland & Hart offers medical and other benefits to partners of gay and lesbian employees on the same terms as it does to spouses of employees.
• We created an Indian Law Practice Group and actively recruited Native American law students and lateral hires.
• Each year we contribute to such scholarship funds as the Colorado Native American Indian Scholarship Fund, the Sam Cary Scholarship Endowment Fund, the Colorado Asian American Bar Scholarship Fund, the Colorado Hispanic Bar Scholarship Fund, and the Colorado Women's Bar Association Scholarship Fund.
• In partnership with the University of Idaho School of Law, we sponsor a "Law by Day, Jazz by Night" each year for undergraduate minority students who have an interest in law.
• We took a leadership role in organizing and supporting the Colorado Pledge Group's Minority First Year Law Student Summer Clerk Program. Through this program, law firms agreed to add at least one diverse first year law student to their summer clerk program.
• We were involved in the creation of the Cross-Professional Business Networking Group, where diverse attorneys in our community can meet and network with non-attorney professionals of color. We view this as a way to help diverse attorneys increase their business development possibilities.

For more information regarding Holland & Hart's commitment to diversity, please contact Peter Houtsma at (303) 295-8259.