Administrative & Environmental

Mayer Brown’s Supreme Court and Appellate group maintains an active administrative law docket. From direct challenges to administrative rulemakings to cases that turn on agency interpretations of statutes and regulations, our appellate team has wide-ranging experience in all aspects of administrative law.

Although there are some principles of general applicability in administrative law—such as the rules governing deference to agencies—many cases require knowledge of specific statutory schemes. Our appellate attorneys are regularly involved in cases implicating statutes such as the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Freedom of Information Act, and the Telecommunications Act, among many others. At the same time, as appellate specialists, our lawyers have unmatched experience translating technical and arcane legal theory into language that generalist judges can readily understand.

The results speak for themselves. For example, in Georgia-Pacific West, Inc. v. Northwest Environmental Defense Center (U.S. Supreme Court), we sought and obtained certiorari over the opposition of the United States and won a 7-1 decision for our client in a dispute over permitting under the Clean Water Act for forest road runoff. And in Arkema Inc. v. EPA (D.C. Circuit), and Honeywell Int’l v. EPA (D.C. Circuit), we convinced the D.C. Circuit to vacate a rule allocating allowances for the production of refrigerants and intervened to successfully defend the replacement rule. And we are involved in some of the most important administrative suits pending today, including challenges to EPA’s Water Transfers Rule and Waters of the United States Rule.