Meghan E. Gavin
ATTORNEY
Seattle and Olympia
Direct Line: (206) 292-2655
[email protected]
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Meghan handles complex environmental and natural resource matters. She offers litigation, regulatory, and advisory services supported by a strong scientific background.
Professional Experience
Represent clients in federal and state court at the district and appellate levels. Her litigation experience includes cost recovery actions under CERCLA/MTCA, defending tribal treaty rights, actions involving water rights or quality, and actions brought under the APA to protect species and natural resources. She also helps represent clients in multi-party allocations.
Represent clients in negotiations with regulatory agencies, such as over the scope of agreed orders or environmental covenants. She also works with regulatory agencies to advance matters of environmental justice important to her clients.
Advise on environmental and energy transactions, including for climate-friendly infrastructure projects. She has assisted in drafting a contract for a first-of-its-kind renewable energy deal, engaged in business negotiations for a renewable biofuels facility, performed environmental due diligence and permitting, and advised potential buyers of contaminated properties of their expected exposure under the pollution control statutes.
Meghan joined Cascadia from the chambers of the Honorable Ronald B. Leighton, District Judge for the Western District of Washington, where she served as a two-year term law clerk. She worked on a variety of civil and criminal cases involving federal and state law, many of which the national and local press followed closely.
Before that, Meghan worked as a summer associate for another Seattle-based firm providing sophisticated real estate and litigation services. She also worked as an extern for the Department of Justice’s Environment and Natural Resources Division, Environmental Defense Section; the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit; and the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Meghan also works for Cascadia Policy Solutions.
Honors
Named SuperLawyer Rising Star by ThomsonReuters (2018–present)
Named Emerging Leader by Environmental Law Institute (2021)
Admitted to World Commission on Environmental Law, International Union for Conservation of Nature (2021)
Bar and Civic Activities
Cascadia Innovation Corridor, Climate and Sustainability Subcommittee (Pro bono staff, 2019 – present)
Board of Directors, Arctic Encounter (Treasurer, 2018 – present)
Executive Committee, Washington State Bar Association's Environmental and Land Use Law Section (Treasurer, 2019 – present)
Alumni Board, Bellarmine Preparatory School (2016 – 18)
American Bar Association, Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources
Education
Certified Expert in Financing Nationally Determined Contributions, Frankfurt School of Finance and Management and United Nations Collaborating Centre for Climate & Sustainable Energy Finance, 2021
J.D., University of Washington School of Law, 2015 (Environmental law concentration; Associate Editor-in-chief, Washington Journal of Environmental Law & Policy)
Advanced Certificate in Conservation Biology, Fordham University Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, 2011
B.S., Boston College, 2010 (Environmental geoscience)
BAr Admissions
Washington
Oregon
