Rodney L. Brown, Jr.
PARTNER
Seattle
Direct Line: (206) 292-2605
rbrown@cascadialaw.com
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Rod's practice focuses on environmental and land use issues relating to pollution control, energy and other large project permitting, hazardous waste, and climate change. He founded Cascadia Law Group and its predecessor in 1996.
Professional
Principal author of Washington’s Superfund law, the Model Toxics Control Act. Member of the Washington Department of Ecology work group that drafted the implementing regulations and member of the MTCA Policy Advisory Committee, which reviewed MTCA for the Washington Legislature and the Department of Ecology.
Advise industrial and governmental clients about compliance with pollution control and waste management regulations, including negotiation of enforcement and corrective action with regulatory agencies.
Represent clients in both preparing and challenging Environmental Impact Statements for a broad variety of projects.
Represent potentially responsible parties at federal and state Superfund hazardous waste sites. Clients have included owners and operators of sites and generators and transporters of waste from a broad range of industries. Representation includes negotiation of cleanups, cost allocation, and natural resource damages.
Environmental review of transportation megaprojects. Member of Department of Transportation Expert Review Panels charged with evaluating the Alaskan Way Viaduct, SR 520 Bridge, Columbia River Crossing, and I-90 tolling projects.
Assist clients with clean energy and climate change issues.
Appointed by Governor Jay Inslee to Co-Chair his Carbon Emissions Reduction Taskforce, charged with determining the best approach to reducing carbon emissions in Washington.
HONORS
One of Lawdragon's 500 Leading Lawyers in America. In its initial ten years, Lawdragon researchers have named fewer than fifty environmental practitioners to the 500.
Chambers USA reports that Rod's peers have called him “the premier environmental lawyer in the state”; their researchers rank Rod as the only “Star Individual” environmental lawyer this side of the Eastern Seaboard, one of just four in the nation to earn that highest ranking in recent years. Chambers has described Rod as a "superb, highly talented practitioner," "effective with both state and federal regulators," whom its sources called "head and shoulders over everyone else" in the region. Their researchers found his clients particularly appreciate Rod's "smart, fair and straightforward" style, and recognize him as a "wonderful top-tier lawyer" who "commands the respect of everyone" for "the different roles he has played in Washington and nationally."
Elected as a Fellow of the American College of Environmental Lawyers.
Named “Lawyer of the Year” by Best Lawyers for environmental law in Seattle in 2010.
One of the few attorneys named a Best Lawyer In America for more than twenty years in a row.
Perennially among the top 100 vote recipients in the list of regional "Super Lawyers" compiled by Thomson Reuters.
Named a Best Lawyer in the Puget Sound region by Seattle magazine; listed among the three best environmental/land use lawyers in the region by Seattle Business Monthly.
Lawdragon Green 500: Leaders in Environmental Law - Lawdragon (2023-present)
Bar and Civic Activities
Member, Board of Directors, Portland General Electric (2007 to present).
Fellow, American College of Environmental Lawyers (2009 to present).
Fellow, American Bar Foundation (2014 to present).
Instructor, University of Washington School of Law, “Climate Change Law” (2016 to present).
Board of Directors, Environmental & Land Use Section, Washington State Bar Association (1991 - 1994)
Board Member, Bullitt Foundation (2011 to 2020; Chair, 2017 to 2020).
Board Member & Chair of many nonprofit organizations.
Gubernatorial appointee to many blue ribbon commissions to reform environmental and land use laws.
Presentations and articles
Chair and presenter at many CLEs and seminars, including 15 years as the co-chair of the Annual Advanced SEPA and NEPA Workshop.
Author of many articles on topics ranging from hazardous waste cleanup to nuclear energy.
Education
Juris Doctor, University of Texas School of Law, 1981 (with honors; Articles Editor of the Texas Law Review; Austin Lacrosse Club, Southwest Conference All-Star (Honorable Mention)).
Bachelor of Arts, Baylor University, 1978 (magna cum laude; Major: Political Science; Minor: Environmental Studies; Dean’s Distinguished List and Dean’s List).
Bar Admissions
Washington
