Susan Stephens

Susan Stephens has over 30 years of experience practicing environmental & natural resource and administrative law, including rulemaking practice and procedure and administrative litigation. Her practice focuses on balancing property and resource use with competing private, governmental and citizen interests.

She represents clients before various federal, state, regional, and local environmental agencies in connection with the acquisition, interpretation, compliance and enforcement of environmental permits for regulated industrial, commercial, and development activities. This representation includes matters related to resource extraction, wetlands/wildlife/wetland mitigation banks, agriculture, stormwater/wastewater, submerged lands, and state and federal listed wildlife. She has guided clients through a variety of enforcement matters, including bypasses, emergency authorizations, unauthorized discharges and unpermitted wetland or species impacts.

Susan has extensive experience guiding development of policy and regulatory initiatives, including most of Florida’s major environmental and wildlife regulations and program assumptions from the federal government over the past decades. She also has experience with complex administrative and judicial permit challenges in both the state and federal arenas, including appeals.

Additionally, Susan has assisted clients in conducting environmental self-audits and due diligence reviews for real estate transactions and in access management cases involving the Department of Transportation.

Susan is Board Certified by The Florida Bar in State & Federal Government and Administrative Practice. Prior to joining the Firm, Susan was a Shareholder in a boutique law firm and, before that, a Partner at an international law firm, both in Tallahassee, Florida.

American Bar Association, Administrative and Regulatory Law Section; American Bar Association, Environment, Energy and Resources Section (SEER); Florida Bar, Environmental and Land Use Law Section (ELULS); American Bar Foundation (ABF); Tallahassee Women Lawyers