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LaJuana Wilcher speaks at environmental law conference

by Mandy Hicks

Attorney LaJuana Wilcher spoke this week at the Kentucky Chamber’s annual environmental law conference in Lexington, Kentucky. Her session focuses on environmental policy at a national level. She is co-presenting with Charles G. Snavely, Secretary of the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet.

The annual conference is the premiere environmental law event in Kentucky. A description of her session, Winds of Change, is below.

What are the environmental policy implications resulting from President Trump’s selection of a new EPA Administrator? How will the elections affect environmental decision makers in Kentucky and in DC? What did Congress intend the State-Federal relationship to be in the environmental regulatory arena, and how has that been working for us in Kentucky? How might this new Administration change the stakes for the State-Federal relationship in Kentucky and the regulated community across the country? These issues will be addressed by two presenters who have experienced and directed changes in our state and federal environmental agencies and have first-hand experience to share.

About LaJuana Wilcher

LaJuana Wilcher is a Partner at ELPO. In 1989,  she was nominated by the President George H.W. Bush and confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve as EPA’s Assistant Administrator for Water in Washington, D.C. In that role, she was responsible for EPA’s water policy and regulations, including implementation of the Clean Water Act and Safe Drinking Water Act. She is the only woman in EPA’s history to have been confirmed in this position.
LaJuana worked on environmental law issues in Washington, D.C., for almost 20 years. She was a Partner in the DC offices of Winston & Strawn and LeBoeuf, Lamb Greene and MacRae LLP, where she served as legal counsel for NACWA and numerous municipalities in federal Clean Water Act litigation, permitting and enforcement matters. She has also served as a group facilitator, expert witness and legislative counsel on various CWA matters.
Returning to private law practice in her home state of Kentucky in 2002, LaJuana was a partner at ELPO until being tapped by Kentucky’s Governor to be Secretary of Kentucky’s Environmental and Public Protection Cabinet from 2003-2006.
LaJuana has developed and taught environmental law and policy courses at Vermont Law School and Vanderbilt University Law School. She was awarded NACWA’s Special Recognition Award in 1993 and State Public Service Award in 2006. She has been selected as a Lifetime Honorary Member of American Water Works Association and has been recognized in The Best Lawyers in America every year since 2009. She speaks frequently throughout the country on environmental law and leadership issues.
LaJuana was a founding Board Member of America’s Clean Water Alliance (now the U.S. Water Alliance) and Friends of Mammoth Cave National Park, and is a Supervisor of the Warren County Conservation District. She owns and operates Scuffle Hill Farm, growing grass-fed Angus cattle, hay and horses.

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