Varied Experiences Are Valuable Assets in Practicing Law

When businesses and governments, from gas stations to water districts, face environmental problems and questions, they turn to San Diego’s environmental law community for specialized help.


These attorneys know about a range of subjects, from underground storage tank cleanup to cap-and-trades for carbon emissions to how to save on development costs by selecting and cleaning up previously contaminated land — they even know how to get money from the federal economic stimulus plan for Superfund hazardous waste site cleanup.

If they didn’t start out in the sciences, they’re steeped in it now. Not a climate-change denyer among them, though they’re willing to argue cost versus effectiveness when it comes to remedies, these lawyers say they’d rather craft solutions than litigate.

• Stephen L. Marsh, chairman of the environmental practice at Luce Forward

Like many of the new wave of environmental lawyers, Stephen L. Marsh studied science before he went to law school. His background in chemistry and post-graduate studies in geochemical oceanography prove useful again and again to clients who find themselves in a complex environmental law tangle.

“I get along great with people whose background is scientific. I can talk to consultants and understand their language,” Marsh said. “It’s really important when we’re working towards solutions.”

Marsh has worked extensively on what environmental lawyers call brown-field development: preparing previously contaminated land for building sites. He worked on a number of downtown projects, including Petco Park, and a number of the condominium high-rises developed during the real estate boom.

He often represents clients who face the challenge of implementing new regulations at the behest of government agencies.

“Sometimes, the agencies exceed their jurisdiction and we point out where we believe the limits are, and cooperate where we can,” he said. “I’ve found that if we come in and show we are acting in a good faith to try to solve problems we can reach an outcome that’s a win for everyone.

“I like working with intelligent and reasonable regulators.”

Born in Detroit, he first put his degree in chemistry to work in west Florida, where he ran a mobile laboratory for the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, doing on-site sampling and monitoring. A stint in the U.S. Navy brought him to San Diego, where he flew S-3 Viking jets off North Island — and off aircraft carriers.

His practice now often involves helping clients understand and comply with a growing number of regulations, including new requirements to monitor and report greenhouse gases.

“We’re at the first stage of dealing with greenhouse gases, figuring out who, how much and where they’re being emitted,” Marsh said. “The risk is that we may devote an enormous amount of resources for a small improvement.”

Marsh is getting ready for the Inter-Pacific Bar Association’s 20th annual conference in Singapore in May, where he’ll moderate a panel titled, “Clean Development Mechanisms: After Copenhagen.” The panel will look at the rising interest in nuclear power as a cleaner alternative to coal-fired power and the international concerns and issues.

“I like complex cases with complex issues,” Marsh said. “I like being creative and finding win-win solutions that help my clients.

“There are so many potential solutions that there are creative approaches we can count on to work.”

• John J. Lormon, partner, Procopio, Cory, Hargreaves & Savitch LLP

John J. Lormon thrives in groups. He serves on American Bar Association committees, including the organization’s Climate Change, Sustainable Development and Ecosystems Committee and the Environment, Energy and Resources Committee. He served on the board of the San Diego area Regional Water Quality Control Board, the California Coastal Conservancy, and several city panels focused on environment and infrastructure. And he remains a member of the Director’s Cabinet of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

He has early morning breakfasts with the Environmental Breakfast Club and works late for clients.

As of this writing, Lormon is nominated for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California’s 2060 Blue Ribbon Committee, a panel set to make recommendations for new business models and strategies to provide for sustainability in the region.

“When I was in the seminary, I took a voluntary association course that had the biggest effect on me of my courses,” Lormon said. “I guess it made me a believer in the power of collaboration and ideas, rather than possessions — you don’t own anything and nothing owns you.”

Lormon is among those who are glad for the sea change in environmental law, where litigation has been pushed to the back seat by increasingly codified regulations.

“I’m not a litigator; I don’t fight,” Lormon said. “I try to find solutions that benefit my clients and are fair for them.”

Influenced by his study with the Jesuits, Lormon began his career practicing criminal law after he completed law school in Boston. A position with BP p.l.c., formerly British Petroleum, took him to Alaska in the early 1980s, where he worked on pipeline and excess energy sales issues.

He made his way to California and set up practice with Gray, Cary, Ware & Freidenrich LLP where he picked up a stunning souvenir: Lormon has a slice of the Exxon Valdez and a chunk of the rock it was impaled on. Lormon represented NASSCO, where the Valdez came for repairs after it infamously ran aground in 1989.

“It was amazing to me how thick the crude oil was,” he said. “It was muck.”

He finds his practice booming in the areas of sustainability and clean technology these days and spends much of his time on climate change-related issues.

“With all the information we have, and all the information they have to process, our clients want us to understand their business and help them solve problems,” he said. “I put in a lot of hours to stay abreast and be able to offer clients very current and thoughtful service.”

• James R. Dodson, a lawyer with The Law Offices of Jeffrey G. Scott

James R. Dodson loves ecosystems. His undergraduate studies as a biologist gave him an alarming view of how strip-mining had the potential to harm the delicate ecosystems of Colorado, where he grew up and earned his bachelor’s degree.

“I decided I could do more for the environment as an attorney than as a biologist, and I think that’s proved to be true,” he said.

Dodson came to San Diego to study at the University of San Diego School of Law — charmed by the notion that he could use his “Sea Hunt”-inspired diving skills in his free time. After law school, he began a general civil practice, with hiking as an outlet for his continuing fascination with ecosystems.

He worked at Sempra Energy on complex regulatory filings and environmental issues for 10 years.

“You wonder how somebody with deep feelings for the environment would work for Sempra, but we did a lot of things close to my values, including furthering the planning for endangered species,” Dodson said. He also developed a solid sense of what dealing with regulators is about.

He left the job in 2002, and decided to take a break from practicing law to spend some time with his kids before they went to college.

“I volunteered at Lakeside’s River Park Conservancy river restoration project, where we’re part of groups developing a 52-mile conservancy and river walkway,” Dodson said. “That led to CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act) work, which led to several projects in California and Nevada.”

In 2008, Dodson signed on with The Law Offices of Jeffrey G. Scott, whose practice involves representing public agencies, including the Vallecitos Water District.

Among his current projects: the cleanup of Lake San Marcos, an intractable mess of fertilizer, old and new runoff and sediment. And he’s grown into the environmental attorney he set out to be.

“It’s a very prolific area in terms of promulgating new laws. There’s a lot of rule-making at the agency level,” he said. “The science continues to evolve and improve and with that comes a lot of hard work to stay current.

“I’ve never let go the values I had in Colorado,” Dodson added. “Most environment lawyers I’ve worked with seem like that — they haven’t given up their values.”

• Kelly Richardson, partner at Latham & Watkins LLP

Kelly Richardson likes the scientific approach to solving environmental problems as well.

“Environmental matters usually have a large number of stakeholders trying to find solutions and common areas of agreement,” he said. “It’s a dynamic area of law where the issues are complex and rooted in science.”

Richardson has been part of the five years of negotiations on the state Regional Water Quality Control Board’s order to dredge nearly 1 million cubic yards of heavy metals, solvents and other toxics off the floor of San Diego Bay.

Richardson, who represents General Dynamics NASSCO, has been part of the successful effort to reduce the amount of dredging to less than 150,000 cubic yards. NASSCO, he notes, has covered its property with berms to achieve a goal of not-a-drop of runoff into the bay.

“The current tenants didn’t contribute to the contamination and the long-ago tenants who did were lawfully disposing of materials at the time,” he said. “There’s a thriving ecosystem in the bay, the critters are healthy there. So the question is, ‘To what extent do we want to dredge up, stir up these contaminants and move them somewhere else?’ ”

Balanced Background

Richardson graduated from UCLA with a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering before he went to law school, where he received training and experience that promote taking a logical and methodical approach to problem solving.

“I loved doing this work as an engineer,” he said. “I fell in love with the regulatory side of it.”

He attended Georgetown University School of Law and returned to California in 2000.

“The science drives the result,” he said. “A group of scientists can more readily find solutions.”

For example, he represented a client in central California being pushed to achieve no runoff.

“Is there a benefit to no runoff? The science says no,” Richardson explains. “If the public understands the science and the costs to achieve goals, they like solutions that make scientific and economic sense.”

Marty Graham is a freelance writer for the Business Journal.