David T Buente

DAVID T. BUENTE, JR. is the head of the firm’s environmental group and represents clients in complex federal environmental litigation, legislative and rulemaking matters, with an emphasis on Clean Air Act, Superfund, environmental criminal and toxic tort matters. Mr. Buente joined the firm in 1990 from the U.S. Department of Justice where he was the Chief of the Environmental Enforcement Section, Environment and Natural Resources Division from 1985 to 1990, directing all federal civil and criminal environmental enforcement litigation. Prior to that, he handled a broad range of federal environmental trial and appellate litigation for EPA and other federal agencies as a Justice Department trial attorney and also served with the Interior Department and the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office. Mr. Buente has represented a number of corporations in complex federal environmental enforcement matters with Justice and EPA, including American Electric Power, Cinergy, General Electric, Georgia Pacific, Ford Motors, Honeywell and Tysons Food, and advised a number of trade associations on diverse environmental issues. He is a member of the American Bar Association's Sections on Environment, Energy and Resources and on Litigation, has served as Vice-Chair on numerous ABA Committees and is currently Vice-Chair of the Environmental Litigation Committee. Mr. Buente has been cited in a number of surveys of private sector lawyers, including: Chambers USA Leading Lawyers (ranked tier one), and Who’s Who Legal USA: Environment.