Attorneys

James Birkelund is an environmental attorney specializing in endangered species, land use, climate change, and natural resource matters. He counsels nonprofit, government, and private entities on a broad range of litigation, administrative, and transactional issues. Sample engagements include litigating to protect wetlands, advising on climate change and energy regulations, lobbying to protect parks, and working to promote alternative energy. James also teaches negotiations classes at UC Hastings College of the Law. Previously he practiced environmental law at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and as in-house counsel for a major electricity utility in Australia. He received a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School and an M.S. in Resource Policy from the University of Michigan School of Natural Resources.

jbirkelund@greenfirelaw.com

Rachel Doughty practices land use and environmental law. She has experience in matters of local and federal land use, and focuses her practice on water quality, land use management, permitting, and California Proposition 65. In her practice she has worked with state and federal agencies, including the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Forest Service, and multiple states’ departments of environmental quality and management. Prior to attending law school, Rachel worked in the Wetlands Division of the Office of Water at the U.S. EPA. There she worked to address pollution in the Gulf of Mexico. Rachel has a master’s degree in Natural Resources (with a minor concentration in Biogeochemistry) and an undergraduate degree in Biochemistry, Cellular and Molecular Biology.

rdoughty@greenfirelaw.com
828-424-2005

René Voss practices natural resources law on behalf of various non-profit groups to protect our National Forests from logging and other developments. Most of his work involves old forests and rare species’ habitat protection in the Southern Sierra Nevada and the California North Coast forests, although he also works on projects in Southeastern Alaska and the Southern U.S. Since graduating from law school in 2007, Mr. Voss has litigated over a dozen cases in federal courts in California, Alaska, and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal. From 1994 to the present, he has prepared an estimated 85 administrative appeals for various clients, challenging U.S. Forest Service logging projects and other actions under the U.S. Forest Service’s informal administrative appeal process, a necessary pre-requisite to litigation. He enjoys hiking, movies, travel, and lives in Marin County, California with his wife and son.

rvoss@greenfirelaw.com
415-446-9027