Haynes Boone recently announced that former deputy regional counsel for the Environmental Protection Agency Clarissa Howley Mills has joined the firm’s Dallas office as a partner.
Mills, who rose through the management ranks over nearly a decade at the EPA, said she was ready for a growth opportunity.
“Haynes Boone’s environmental group has an exceptional reputation,” she said. “With Mary Simmons Mendoza and Jeff Civins, I have the mentorship to launch my career in private practice.”
Mills grew up driving tractors on a corn, soybean, and wheat crop farm in Scandia, Kansas. She says her agricultural upbringing and witnessing the impact of litigation between Kansas, Nebraska, and Colorado over the use of irrigation water from the Republican River to her father’s business is what eventually steered her into environmental law.
“I have an appreciation for the environment, and also that it is a business,” she said.
After graduating from the University of Kansas School of Law, Mills worked at a small law firm briefly before joining the EPA in Region 7 in Kansas City. She then relocated to Region 6 in Dallas, where she gained experience with the key environmental law statutes such as the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and Superfund, and also with less-prominent laws including the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), and the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA).
Mills’ practice was also diverse in the industries it touched from large petrochemical plants and Superfund mining sites to concentrated animal operations and pesticide applicators.
“Clarissa brings a wealth of experience from the EPA, where she was at the forefront of complex environmental cases,” Mendoza, chair of Haynes Boone’s Environmental Practice Group, said in a statement. “Her deep understanding of environmental law, particularly in the areas of air regulation and chemical safety and compliance, makes her a valuable addition to our team.”
In one such high-profile case, Mills was a lead attorney in the enforcement action against TPC Group related to the November 2019 explosion incident at its Port Neches facility. The resulting civil penalty of $12,100,000 is the third largest Clean Air Act Section 112(r) settlement nationwide and also included approximately $80 million in injunctive relief.
Other key areas Mills contributed to at the EPA include broader enforcement efforts targeting chemical accident risk reduction and regulation related to dicamba pesticides.
As budget cuts and departures hit the EPA, the agency in March released 31 focus areas aimed at “rolling back trillions in regulatory costs and hidden ‘taxes’ on U.S. families.”
Two areas Mills highlighted that she is paying particular attention to are the reconsideration of the Risk Management Program rule and the greenhouse gas and climate change rules.