Shawn M. LaTourette is an environmental lawyer, litigator, strategist, and former government official who enables clients across industries to deliver major projects, navigate complex disputes, manage risk, respond to crises, and pursue their development and sustainability goals. Previously the top environmental official in New Jersey, Shawn served as Commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP), one of the most active regulatory and natural resource management agencies in the United States. A recognized national leader, Shawn has been at the forefront of legal, regulatory, and public policy developments that inform how companies do business and shape how communities grow and thrive.
Shawn focuses his practice on environmental and natural resource issues in regulatory, transactional, litigation, and policy settings. He represents a wide array of businesses, institutional investors, and quasi-governmental entities with projects and interests across the infrastructure, transportation, energy, real estate, chemicals, engineering, pharmaceutical, and manufacturing industries. Drawing upon private and public sector experience, Shawn equips clients with comprehensive permitting strategies necessary to de-risk and deliver major projects; represents clients in their most critical environmental investigations, compliance, and enforcement actions; and provides clients with strategic, legal, and policy advice in their internal affairs and throughout their engagements with regulators and other market participants. Shawn handles permitting and regulatory proceedings before state and federal agencies, provides environmental counsel essential to commercial and financial transactions, and litigates complex environmental, natural resource damage, and related matters from initial investigation through trial and appeal.
As Commissioner, Shawn led the implementation of new environmental laws, developed novel regulatory schemes, built permitting and enforcement programs, and established policies that continue to define environmental governance in New Jersey and inform action by other state and federal agencies. Throughout his tenure, Shawn worked at the intersection of economic development and natural resource stewardship to deploy a historic $6.7B+ investment in environmental infrastructure, recovered $3.2B+ in pollution abatement through strategic enforcement initiatives, and developed nation-leading regulatory reforms to address PFAS and emerging contaminants in drinking water and environmental media, modernize flood safety standards, assess cumulative impacts in communities with environmental justice concerns, accelerate brownfield remediation and redevelopment, expedite permitting processes, and improve environmental quality outcomes while advancing economic growth.
An experienced litigator, Shawn has been involved in some of the most consequential environmental cases before New Jersey state and federal courts over the last twenty years. Early in his career, Shawn and his colleagues successfully defended the first natural resource damage case to reach trial in the nation. Most recently, as a government agency executive and in-house counsel, Shawn directed an affirmative litigation strategy that resulted in multiple landmark environmental settlements. His results included the largest settlement ever achieved by a single U.S. state, which resolved complex multibillion-dollar claims concerning PFAS ‘forever chemicals,’ providing certainty for public entity claimants, responsible parties, and their corporate successors.
Shawn’s clients rely upon his deep understanding of governmental decision-making, the laws and policies that drive enforcement, the settlement frameworks necessary to resolve complex matters, and the dynamics that move projects, cases, and transactions forward. For those with environmental regulatory and litigation needs in New Jersey, Shawn's knowledge and capabilities have been key to achieving his clients’ business goals and meeting their compliance obligations. His leading role in shaping New Jersey’s environmental regulatory framework, directing enforcement programs, and determining administrative appeals makes Shawn an unmatched resource. For clients with federal or multi-jurisdictional interests, his leadership of one of the nation's most consequential state environmental agencies has enabled his deep engagement in federal environmental policy and sustained relationships with regulators across the country. A recognized national voice on environmental, energy, natural resource, climate, and sustainability issues, Shawn brings crucial perspective to clients with interests in New Jersey and beyond.
Beyond his practice, Shawn serves on multiple Boards and as an Adjunct Professor of Law at Rutgers Law School, where he developed and teaches courses on Environmental Justice and Climate Change Law and Policy. Shawn earned his law degree summa cum laude from Rutgers Law School, where he was class salutatorian, and his undergraduate degree magna cum laude from Rutgers University. Prior to his government leadership, Shawn was an environmental law and litigation partner at a northeast regional Am Law 200 firm.
Concentrations
•Environmental review and permitting
•Energy, infrastructure, and industrial project development
•Regulatory compliance, enforcement, and administrative appeals
•Environmental, cost recovery, and natural resource damage litigation
•Contaminated site (brownfields) remediation and redevelopment
•Environmental risk management and transactional due diligence
•Environmental counsel in real estate, corporate, financial and commercial transactions
•Regulatory and compliance
•Complex torts
The attorney is providing legal services through and affiliated with Greenberg Traurig, LLP, a New York Limited Liability Partnership. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
Recognition & Leadership
Awards & Accolades
•Recipient, Siera Club, “National Environmental Achievement Award,” 2024
•Recipient, Friends of Liberty State Park, “Democracy Leadership Award,” 2024
•Recipient, Gopal Civic Association, “Community Public Servant Award,” 2023
•Recipient, Environmental Council of the States, “Environmental Program Innovation Award,” 2022
•Recipient, Engineering News Record, “ENR Top 25 Newsmakers Award,” 2021
•Listed, Super Lawyers magazine, “New Jersey Super Lawyers Rising Stars,” 2014-2019
