Insights

Washington – June 5, 2025: Crowell & Moring earned 80 rankings for 71 lawyers, as well as 43 national and statewide practice area rankings, in the Chambers USA 2025 guide. The rankings are driven by independent interviews of clients and lawyers at peer firms.

San Francisco – May 29, 2025: Stacey Geis, former deputy assistant administrator at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, has joined Crowell & Moring’s Environment, Energy and Natural Resources and White Collar and Regulatory Enforcement groups as senior counsel in its San Francisco office. Geis brings over 25 years of experience, at the federal and state levels, in environmental law and policy, litigation, and criminal and civil enforcement. 

Washington – March 7, 2025: The Burton Awards honored Crowell & Moring partner Joanna Rosen Forster, counsel Jacob Canter and Derick D. Dailey, and associate Matt Menezes with Law360’s Distinguished Legal Writing Award for their article discussing a Supreme Court ruling and its impact on social media companies. The award will be presented at a gala reception at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. on Monday, May 19.

This invitation is extended to our friends and colleagues in environment, energy, and sustainability, and related fields from across industry, government, and nonprofit sectors. This is the second in our Green Roof series of gatherings, intended to help foster connections and conversation amongst attendees.

Jon Welner will be interviewing Larry Goldzband, the Executive Director of the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC), on the Commission’s new plan to prepare the SF Bay Area for sea-level rise. BCDC is the agency responsible for permitting all development on the shoreline of San Francisco Bay. On December 5, 2024, the BCDC adopted the Regional Shoreline Adaptation Plan (RSAP). The RSAP is a region-wide plan for the San Francisco Bay shoreline that guides the creation of coordinated, locally planned sea level rise adaptation actions that work together to achieve a regional One Bay Vision. This includes BCDC’s guidelines for how local governments must meet the requirements of SB 272, a new State mandate that requires all local governments along the shoreline to prepare a Subregional Shoreline Adaptation Plan by 2034.

These ESG claims were purported to be overstated, misleading, or false and unsubstantiated. While these early cases focused on false advertising and consumer protection law violations, recent cases have focused more on misleading ESG funds and investment products, net-zero targets, and carbon-neutral claims, sometimes coordinating claims across jurisdictions including the EU, UK, Australia, and the U.S.

Federal climate policy in the United States is undergoing significant turmoil. But what is happening on the other side of the Atlantic? The European Union continues to pursue policies that address climate change, including through reporting requirements and carbon trading and border taxes. European judges are also seeing more and more litigation related to these and other policies, meaning that court cases are increasingly playing a role in shaping the future direction of European climate policy.

This presentation will provide an overview of recent AG ESG enforcement activity, enforcement trends, and explain how and why AG ESG priorities are important to business of all types.