Two former DOJ environment lawyers land at firm

By Lesley Clark | 05/21/2025 01:36 PM EDT

The new hires arrive as the Trump administration is planning cutbacks at the Department of Justice’s Environment and Natural Resources Division.

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Two former DOJ environment trial lawyers have found a new firm after leaving the department. Tingey Injury Law Firm/Unsplash

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.

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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.

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