Cascadia Law Group Welcomes Dennis McLerran
The former EPA Region 10 Administrator and Executive Director of the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency will join our Seattle office.
On June 1, Dennis McLerran returns to the practice of law and dispute resolution, becoming Of Counsel at Cascadia Law Group PLLC after serving seven years as the Regional Administrator for EPA Region 10 and as Executive Director of the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency. Dennis will focus his practice on environmental, climate change, land use, treaty rights and regional regulatory issues.
President Barack Obama appointed Dennis in 2010 to the post of EPA Region 10 Administrator for the states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Alaska, where he served until the end of the Obama Administration in January 2017. That role put Dennis at the forefront of a wide range of environmental policy issues in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, including development of cleanup plans for the Seattle and Portland harbors.
At the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency Dennis served as Executive Director, appointed by the elected officials of King, Pierce, Snohomish, and Kitsap counties, as well as the Mayors of the cities of Seattle, Tacoma, Everett, and Bremerton. Dennis led our region to attain national air quality standards, developed state climate legislation, and created several innovative, collaborative approaches to solving air quality issues. These included founding the award-winning international Northwest Ports Clean Air Strategy and the regional Diesel Solutions program. Before that, Dennis focused his law practice on land use, real estate and environmental law, serving as the City Attorney of Port Townsend, in the Land Use Division of the Seattle City Attorney’s Office, and in private practice.
Governor Jay Inslee recently appointed Dennis to the Leadership Council of the Puget Sound Partnership. He also serves as a Board Member of the US arm of the Stockholm Environment Institute. Dennis has previously served as President and longtime Board Member of the National Association of Clean Air Agencies, as a member of US EPA’s Clean Air Act Advisory Committee, and on several additional federal advisory committees to EPA. Throughout his term at EPA Dennis regularly hosted and led US Delegations to China and other Asia Pacific nations to work collaboratively on addressing air pollution issues, with a particular focus on ports and marine goods movement. Dennis also has been extensively involved in climate change stakeholder processes and issues in Washington State and along the West Coast. He is a past Chair of the Land Use and Environmental Law Section of the Washington State Bar.
After growing up in Eastern Washington Dennis attended the University of Washington, receiving a BA in Urban Planning. Dennis earned his law degree at Seattle University School of Law, where he was a leader of the public interest law foundation.
