EMS represents clients on matters concerning federal and state environmental and natural resource laws affecting the regulation of land, water, wetlands, forests, oceans, and fish and wildlife.  The firm focuses on assisting clients with regulatory compliance under the Endangered Species Act, Clean Water Act, National Environmental Policy Act, and related state laws.  We also provide legal and strategic advice to clients on complex conservation land transactions, mitigation banking arrangements, open space preservation, and public lands issues.  We have a national reputation for our work at the forefront of these laws and for our ability to craft unconventional solutions to unconventional challenges.  We have extensive experience with a full range of approaches and mechanisms to regulatory compliance, enabling us to tailor strategies to fit our clients’ needs and help secure durable, timely, and efficient regulatory outcomes.  In many cases, we develop and advance new approaches to regulatory compliance and help shape policies, law, and court decisions relating to regulatory interpretation and implementation of these laws.   

Through our project work we have developed excellent working relationships with staff and senior officials at each of the state and federal resource agencies involved in these issues.  We routinely work directly with agency officials in the field, including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Marine Fisheries Service, Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, Army Corps of Engineers, and the Environmental Protection Agency.  We are also in regular contact with senior officials in Washington, D.C., including the Department of the Interior, Department of Commerce, and the White House Council on Environmental Quality.