Key Practice Areas: • Waste Management & Cleanup • Water Quality & Water Rights • Property Development & Acquisition • Endangered Species & Natural Resources • Air Quality Direct phone line: (206) 292-2605 Rod founded the firm and its predecessor in 1996. Before that, he was for several years a managing partner and member in the Land Use and Environmental Law Group at Morrison & Foerster LLP, one of the largest law firms in the world. Over the past decade, Rod has worked on many of the major environmental cases in the Northwest, including the cleanup of most of the Superfund sites in the region, the permitting of major industrial and municipal facilities, and the development of significant "brownfield" properties. Recently, he served as legal counsel to the Spokane River TMDL Collaboration, which developed a landmark approach to protect water quality and provide a predictable 20-year investment plan for local governments and businesses. Rod was the principal author of Washington's Superfund law, the Model Toxics Control Act, and represents and advises multinational corporations, government agencies, regional businesses, and non-profits on environmental topics from real estate transactions to pollution control issues. Governors have sought his expertise, most recently appointing him to the Climate Advisory Team to reduce the pollution that leads to climate change, grow Washington's clean energy economy and move us toward energy independence; to the Department of Transportation Expert Review Panel, charged with evaluating the finance and implementation plans for the Alaskan Way Viaduct and SR 520 Bridge projects; to the Blue Ribbon Commission on Transportation; and previously to the Washington State Regulatory Reform Task Force and the Washington State Growth Strategies Commission. The Washington Legislature appointed him to the Model Toxics Control Act Policy Advisory Committee, and to the Regional Transportation Leadership Group, tasked with preparing recommendations for a new transportation plan for the three-county Seattle metropolitan area. The Director of the Washington State Department of Ecology has appointed Rod to the Regulatory Performance Advisory Board. He has served on the boards of many civic groups over the years, and currently is President of the Washington Environmental Council, a member of the Cascade Agenda Leadership Team, and serves on the board of the Pacific Northwest Pollution Prevention Resource Center, where he was the organization's President for two terms. Rod is also a board member of Portland General Electric, Oregon's largest utility, which has become a national leader in moving to cleaner energy to reduce the region's effect on climate change. A Fellow of the American College of Environmental Lawyers, Rod is one of the few attorneys to be listed in Best Lawyers in America for ten years or more, and is among the half-dozen Washington attorneys selected to appear in Who's Who Legal: USA Environment 2006. Washington Law and Politics magazine lists Rod as one of the state's top 100 "Super Lawyers," Seattle magazine names him one of the best attorneys in the Puget Sound area, and Seattle Business Monthly's research places Rod among the three best environmental/land use lawyers in the region. In its inaugural survey of the region's environmental and land use lawyers, UK-based Chambers & Partners places Rod in the top rank, describing him as a "superb, highly talented practitioner" who excels equally at both environmental transactions and litigation, and whose clients particularly appreciate his "smart, fair and straightforward" style and recognize him as "effective with both state and federal regulators." Rod enjoys climbing and hiking in the mountains near Seattle and traveling the world with his wife, Catherine Conolly, and their daughter, Abbey. Rod graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. from Baylor University, where he majored in Political Science and minored in Environmental Studies. He received his J.D. cum laude from the University of Texas School of Law, where he served as Articles Editor for the Texas Law Review. He clerked after law school for Judge Homer Thornberry of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.