Louis Russell
ATTORNEY
Seattle
Direct Line: (206) 292-2645
[email protected]
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Louis advises Tribal governments, municipalities, nonprofit organizations, businesses, and property owners on environmental and natural resource issues. He represents clients in environmental disputes, permitting, property transactions, and hazardous waste cleanup matters under state and federal law. His practice includes assessing and managing environmental risks, navigating disputes with regulators and other parties, recovering cleanup costs, and pursing insurance coverage.
Professional Experience
Represent clients in environmental litigation, administrative proceedings, and negotiations involving hazardous waste contamination, cost recovery, equitable allocation, and cleanup obligations under Washington's Model Toxics Control Act (MTCA) and the federal Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA).
Advise clients on real estate transactions, including contaminated property acquisitions and sales, environmental due diligence, regulatory risk assessment, and negotiation of liability protections in transaction documents.
Counsel municipalities, Tribal governments, businesses, and property owners on environmental permitting, regulatory compliance, and other interactions with state, federal, and local agencies.
Represent clients in matters involving Tribal treaty rights, natural resource protection, environmental review, and disputes affecting culturally and ecologically significant resources, including government-to-government consultation, agency engagement, and negotiated resolutions.
Support nonprofit organizations and public-interest clients in rulemaking and policy advocacy related to water quality, habitat protection, and climate resilience.
Assist clients in identifying and pursuing insurance coverage for environmental claims and legacy contamination liabilities.
Before joining Cascadia, Louis spent four years as a judicial law clerk. At the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington, Louis helped manage a large docket of federal civil and criminal cases. At the Washington State Court of Appeals, Division One, he handled appeals on issues of state law ranging from real property disputes to criminal sentencing statutes. During law school, he worked as a legal intern at the Natural Resources Defense Council in San Francisco and in the California Attorney General's Public Rights Division, Environment, Land Law, and Natural Resources Section.
Education
J.D., University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, 2015 (Order of the Coif; Certificate in Environmental Law; Editor, Ecology Law Quarterly)
B.A., Pomona College, 2009 (Environmental Analysis)
Bar Admissions
California
Washington
