Two lawyers who focused on environmental litigation at the Justice Department are joining the law firm Kelley Drye & Warren.
Laura Duncan, a first-chair senior trial lawyer with the Department of Justice’s Environment and Natural Resources Division has joined the firm’s Houston office as a partner. Her fellow senior trial lawyer at ENRD, Frances Bishop Morris, is joining the firm’s Washington office as a special counsel.
The moves come as the Trump administration has sought to reorganize the division in a way that former officials warned would leave a “hollowed out” ENRD.
Kelley Drye & Warren noted that Duncan, who spent nearly 10 years in the environmental division, had led teams of lawyers through a number of cases involving environmental, resource and property matters. Duncan was lead trial counsel for the U.S. in several cases, including litigation resulting from record-setting flooding in Houston from Hurricane Harvey.