Maureen F Gorsen
USA Guide 2023
Band 3 : Environment
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Band 3
About
Provided by Maureen F Gorsen
Practice Areas
MAUREEN GORSEN practices at the intersection of public policy, litigation, and regulatory advocacy with a keen sense of her clients’ business objectives. She is a member of Sidley’s Environmental practice, focusing on enforcement defense and regulatory compliance. Maureen has defended clients in both federal and state enforcement matters, including hazardous waste, stormwater, air quality, climate, carbon, GHG, LCFS, AB 32, Prop 65, product labeling, food packaging, and business and tax regulation. She develops strategies for regulatory and permit compliance for environmental, carbon credits, financial, tax, consumer products, and supply chain regulation issues. Maureen also assists clients in developing corporate CSR and ESG policies to reduce product liability and environmental risks and meet sustainability, supply chain, anti-slavery and human trafficking, and conflict minerals statutes. She has a proven track record of coordinating responses to corporate emergencies, surprise government investigations, and catastrophic events, where quick action and strategic insight are critical to protecting a company’s brand.
She is the former director of the California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC), where she directed regulation of waste, soil, and water cleanups under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, and brownfields laws. Maureen spearheaded the California Green Chemistry Initiative and resulting laws governing chemicals under the California Safer Consumer Products rules and other states’ products programs and federal Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) reform. Maureen is also the former general counsel of the California Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA) and the California Natural Resources Agency. In both roles, she was involved in the development, implementation and enforcement of California’s environmental laws, including AB 32 Prop 65, Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act, Coastal Act, and California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).