David Fotouhi is a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP and a member of the firm’s Environmental Litigation and Mass Tort practice group.  Before re-joining Gibson Dunn in 2021, David worked for nearly four years at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), where he served as Acting General Counsel and Principal Deputy General Counsel.  National Law Journal recently recognized David as a “Trailblazer” in environmental and energy law, and Law360 named David a “Rising Star” in environmental law for his work “on game-changing regulations and litigation.”

 David combines his expertise in administrative and environmental law with his litigation experience and a deep understanding of EPA’s inner workings to represent clients in investigations and enforcement actions, the regulatory development process and challenges to agency actions, and environmental litigation including cost recovery and mass tort cases in federal and state courts.  David has provided legal counsel and managed litigation under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) and every major environmental statute, including the Clean Air Act (CAA), Clean Water Act (CWA), Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA or Superfund), Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA), Oil Pollution Act (OPA), Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), and Endangered Species Act (ESA).  While at EPA, David led an office of 245 attorneys and staff.  He played a critical role in developing the legal rationales underpinning major EPA regulatory initiatives, such as the repeal of the 2015 regulatory definition of “Waters of the United States” under the Clean Water Act and promulgation of a replacement definition, and in developing the litigation strategy to defend the Agency’s actions from the judicial challenge, including EPA’s repeal of the Clean Power Plan and promulgation of its replacement, the Affordable Clean Energy Rule.

Prior to entering private practice, David served as a law clerk to the Honorable Raymond W. Gruender of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.  David received a B.A. summa cum laude from Vanderbilt University and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.