Environmental Law · Seattle & the Pacific Northwest

Solid ground, legally speaking.

Permits granted, cleanups negotiated, enforcement defended, and habitat protected — counsel for the exact contour line where the built world meets the natural one.

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The Practice

Six layers of counsel.

Environmental law is stratified — statutes layered over regulations over guidance over local practice. We work every layer, from surface permits to Superfund bedrock.

Topsoil

Permitting & Land Use

SEPA/NEPA review, shoreline permits, and critical-areas approvals — sequenced so projects break ground on schedule.

Subsoil

Water & Wetlands

Clean Water Act 404 permits, stormwater compliance, and water-rights transfers in a region defined by rain.

Stratum III

Air & Climate

Title V permits, emissions reporting, and Climate Commitment Act compliance for operators of every size.

Stratum IV

Species & Habitat

ESA consultations, salmon-recovery overlays, and habitat conservation plans that survive litigation.

Stratum V

Cleanup & Brownfields

MTCA and CERCLA allocation, prospective-purchaser agreements, and redevelopment of land with a past.

Bedrock

Enforcement & Litigation

Agency enforcement defense, citizen-suit prosecution and defense, and appeals — the load-bearing layer.

Who We Counsel

Builders and keepers.

Good environmental outcomes need both sides lawyered well. We're proud to counsel each — with a conflicts wall and a straight face.

For those who build

Renewable-energy developers siting wind, solar & storage
Ports, manufacturers & growers navigating compliance
Developers redeveloping brownfields into housing
Tribes and municipalities permitting public works

For those who keep

Conservation land trusts & watershed councils
Community groups with standing and a science case
Fisheries and shellfish growers defending water quality
Landowners placing conservation easements

The secret both sides learn: the lawyer who has sat in the other chair writes stronger permits, and stronger challenges.

Field Notes

Recent terrain.

200MW solar project, permitted

Eighteen months from application to notice-to-proceed — through county land use, state SEPA review, and a raptor-habitat consultation.

Approved · No appeal filed

$14M cleanup allocation, cut to $2.1M

Our client inherited a contaminated parcel and a demand letter. Historical-operations forensics moved 85% of the allocation to the polluters who earned it.

MTCA allocation · settled

Citizen suit — discharge stopped

For a shellfish growers' association: a Clean Water Act suit that ended a decade of upstream violations, with monitoring our clients help run.

Consent decree · fees awarded

Illustrative matters. Outcomes depend on facts, agencies, and law; no result is guaranteed.

Attorneys

Fluent in statute and sediment.

A hydrogeologist, a former agency counsel, and a litigator who grew up on a fishing boat. Between them, the whole watershed.

Ingrid Wolde, LG

Partner · Cleanup & Water

Licensed geologist turned lawyer. Ingrid reads boring logs and groundwater models herself — then cross-examines the consultants who wrote them.

J.D., UW · B.S. Geology · Licensed Geologist (WA)

Daniel Cloudfeather

Partner · Permitting & Tribal Affairs

Former Ecology Department counsel who wrote guidance the agency still uses. Daniel's permits are engineered like levees — for the hundred-year challenge.

J.D., Lewis & Clark · Former WA Dept. of Ecology · Tribal law practice

Marisol Reyes-Tanaka

Partner · Litigation

Raised on her family's troller out of Ballard; litigates like it. Citizen suits, enforcement defense, and appeals in state and federal court.

J.D., Berkeley · 9th Cir. & W.D. Wash. bars · 30+ environmental trials

"They permitted our solar farm and, two years later, papered the conservation easement on my family's timberland. Same firm, same care, both sides of the ledger."

Begin

Walk the site with us.

Every engagement starts with the map — your parcel, your permit path, your exposure. Bring the survey; we'll bring the statutes.

Phone(206) 555-0147

Email[email protected]

Office1000 2nd Avenue, Suite 1800, Seattle, WA 98104

Site visitsYes — boots kept by the door