Sheila D. Jones heads the environmental litigation group within the environment, land use and project development practice group.

Ms. Jones' practice involves counseling private and public entities regarding regulatory compliance issues; environmental, natural resources and historical preservation issues related to projects and site remediation issues; litigation associated with compliance issues; and complex litigation concerning environmental, historic preservation and natural resources issues related to public and private projects. Ms. Jones has extensive experience with several federal environmental statutes and their state analogues, including the National Environmental Policy Act, the National Historic Preservation Act, Section 4(f) of the Department of Transportation Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, the Clean Air Act, the Toxic Substances Control Act, the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act, the Deepwater Port Act, and the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act. Ms. Jones also advises clients regarding the effect of potential policy, statutory and regulatory changes relating to carbon emissions and related topics on the issuance of permits and the operation of facilities. Ms. Jones also works closely with Akin Gump’s public law and policy practice group on policy development on behalf of the firm’s clients.

Before joining Akin Gump, Ms. Jones was a partner at Cutler & Stanfield, L.L.P., an environmental and project development firm that merged with Akin Gump in November 2000. From 1983 until she joined Cutler & Stanfield, Ms. Jones was a lawyer in the Land and Natural Resources Division (now the Environment and Natural Resources Division) of the U.S. Department of Justice. During this period she handled various cases referred to the U.S. Department of Justice by Region I and Region II of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Ms. Jones was appointed assistant chief of the Environmental Enforcement Section in 1986. As assistant chief, she supervised the prosecution of all civil referrals to the U.S. Department of Justice by Region III, Region VII and Region VIII of EPA. She also assisted the EPA in its development of agency enforcement policy under federal environmental statutes governing the storage, use and treatment of hazardous and solid waste and remediation of contaminated property.

Ms. Jones headed the litigation team in the first enforcement case brought by the United States under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (Superfund). During her tenure at the U.S. Department of Justice, Ms. Jones litigated numerous cases on behalf of EPA under Superfund, the Toxic Substances Control Act, the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.

Ms. Jones’ experience includes, among other matters, representation of the following:

• purchasers of industrial facilities, requiring due diligence of liabilities of legacy properties and operations and evaluation of CERCLA responses and likely future costs
• a manufacturer of electronic components with respect to a site with groundwater contamination
• the then-current contractor at DOE’s Rocky Flats facility
• the contractor managing NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory – an NPL site – regarding site remediation issues and other environmental compliance matters
• a de maximus generator to the Lone Pine Superfund Site
• a local government in Puerto Rico in connection with the remediation of a landfill site owned by the client
• a university with respect to environmental compliance issues arising out of the operations on its campus and properties previously used by the university
• the largest natural gas gatherer in the United States in a civil enforcement action relating to a natural gas facility in which the government alleged failure to comply with the prevention of significant deterioration requirements of the Clean Air Act
• the world’s largest diversified resources company in connection with its Clean Air Act permit application for an offshore LNG facility
• a state environmental agency in connection with the remediation and closure of the West Valley site, a former radioactive waste reprocessing and disposal facility.

Ms. Jones received her B.A. with highest honors from the University of Maryland at College Park and her J.D. from Harvard Law School. She is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia and Colorado. She is also admitted to practice before several federal district and appellate courts.

Ms. Jones has served as co-chair of the District of Columbia Bar Environment, Energy and Natural Resources Section Steering Committee; a vice chair of the Government Policy Liaison Committee of the Natural Resources, Energy and Environmental Law Section of the American Bar Association; and a vice chair of the Solid & Hazardous Waste Committee of the Natural Resources, Energy and Environment Section of the American Bar Association. She recently published “Port Authority” ( Los Angeles Lawyer, July/August 2007), which discusses the Deepwater Port Act approval process for liquefied natural gas facilities.