Another veteran of the Department of Justice’s environmental defense section is joining a nonprofit that’s staffing up to contest the Trump administration’s efforts to roll back environmental protections.
Jessica O’Donnell joined the Environmental Law & Policy Center earlier this month after leaving DOJ in May as deputy chief of the environmental defense section. The Chicago-based organization bills itself as the “Midwest’s leading environmental legal advocacy” group and has sued EPA over water pollution in Lake Erie and is working to shut down coal plants, among other efforts.
O’Donnell will work as a senior attorney in the Washington office and said she expects to focus on federal regulations and litigation related to climate change, clean air and water.
Her arrival comes as the Trump administration has sought to restructure the environmental division at DOJ that defends and enforces the nation’s environmental laws. O’Donnell, who joined the department in 2004, is the second former Department of Justice environmental litigator to join the center, which has pledged to increase its “litigation firepower” to push back against environmental rollbacks.
