Environmental Outlook in the Biden Administration: Big Changes in the Making

Allyn believes that environmental compliance makes good business sense and knows that businesses are in a unique position to drive change.

As a former EPA Regional Counsel with 30 years of agency experience, Allyn joined Beveridge & Diamond in 2019, bringing her government expertise to the private sector. She is dedicated to helping businesses develop proactive environmental compliance strategies, navigate governmental regulations, and negotiate with agencies to develop reasonable and implementable solutions to enforcement matters. Whether the matter involves air, water, or waste regulation, Superfund cleanup, reuse and recycling, or disaster preparedness, Allyn’s diverse experience serves as a guiding authority on environmental compliance and government regulations.

As Regional Counsel, she was the senior executive responsible for advising career staff and political appointees on litigation strategy, enforcement approaches, and decision making to implement all the laws under EPA authority. Her work also influenced national decision making, particularly on enforcement matters, Superfund, and Clean Water Act litigation and policy.

Allyn lived in San Francisco for 25 years and now resides in the Pacific Northwest. She is an avid reader and book collector who previously owned a successful bookstore. She enjoys sharing her knowledge and teaching negotiation skills, environmental law, and environmental enforcement. She has held adjunct teaching positions at the University of California Hastings School of Law, Seattle University, and Seattle University Law School.

Allyn co-chairs Beveridge & Diamond's Water and Textiles and Fashion groups. She also co-chairs the Women in Environment & Energy Law Affinity Group of the National Association of Women Lawyers and the Waste & Resource Recovery section of the American Bar Association.

John offers clients the benefit of decades of experience as a top environmental lawyer, a leader of major bar and environmental organizations, and a distinguished military career.

John provides strategic counsel on high-stakes environmental and natural resources litigation, civil and criminal enforcement, and compliance. Working with clients makes the practice of law worthy and valuable to him as they advance strategic needs while protecting human health and the environment.

For more than two decades, John served as a senior leader on environment and natural resource matters at the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), where he supervised some of the department’s most significant litigation, including the Exxon Valdez oil spill, Love Canal, and Bunker Hill litigation. As the Senate-confirmed, Assistant Attorney General, ENRD, John worked on the most high-profile environment cases, and personally negotiated the multi-billion dollar resolutions of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and the Volkswagen emissions scandal. These cases required a great deal of coordination, expert assistance, and sophisticated management of numerous players to reach successful outcomes. This experience has given John insight into the workings of large corporations, as well as into the challenges that major companies face in lawsuits.

As the former President of the Environmental Law Institute, the former Chair of the American Bar Association (ABA) Section on Environment, Energy, and Natural Resources, and the immediate past President of the American College of Environmental Lawyers, John has led each of the premier environmental organizations in the United States. In addition, he was the first government attorney to be elected and serve as the President of the District of Columbia Bar, now the largest bar in the nation.

John’s leadership is a defining characteristic of his long and distinguished legal career. Before joining the DOJ, John was the Chief Legislative Counsel of the U.S. Army. After graduating from the United States Military Academy at West Point, John served in Airborne, Ranger, and Special Forces units in Germany and Vietnam. His subsequent military assignments include as a criminal prosecutor in Germany and civil trial lawyer in the Pentagon; Chief of Litigation Branch, Europe; General Counsel, Defense Nuclear Agency; Staff Judge Advocate in Germany; and Director of Administrative and Civil Law, Judge Advocate General’s School, Charlottesville, Virginia. His military education includes being a Fellow, Army War College, and the Command and General Staff College. He is a graduate of the University of Santa Clara Law school (summa cum laude) and the University of Virginia (MA with honors).

John’s awards for government and military service include the President Rank Award from three different Presidents, the Bronze Star, Legion of Merit, Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Air Medal with Oak Leaf Clusters, and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry with Silver Star.

With over 25 years of practice at the local, state, and federal levels of government, Alexandra Dunn brings to clients an extensive institutional knowledge and keen ability to help solve regulatory problems companies may face. Her deep relationships across the nation and reputation for transparency, fairness, and equity, make her a forceful presence in the most difficult of settings.

Alexandra previously served as the Assistant Administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, in which she led the Agency in the creation of national policies implementing federal laws governing chemicals, pesticides, and pollution prevention. Prior to that, she was the EPA Administrator for New England (Region 1).

Drawing upon her agency background, Alexandra provides clients with an "EPA insider" perspective on regulations and management of emerging contaminants, particularly integrated per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFOS/PFAS), and has decades of risk communication and risk management experience to offer clients on chemicals of concern.

Previously, Alexandra served as Executive Director and General Counsel of the Environmental Council of the States (ECOS), the national non-profit, non-partisan association of U.S. state and territorial environmental commissioners from 2014-2018.

Alexandra is a recognized scholar of environmental law as well, having served as Dean of Environmental Law Programs and Adjunct Professor of Law at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University, where she taught courses in Environmental Justice and led efforts to create the nation's first L.L.M. in Environmental Law focused on climate change. Alexandra also taught Environmental Justice courses as a Lecturer in Law, Columbus School of Law, Catholic University of America and as an Adjunct Associate Professor of Law, American University Washington College of Law.