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• Biotechnology
• Carbon Capture and Storage
• Climate Change
• Climate Change (International)
• International Environmental Law
• Multilateral Environmental Agreements
• Ocean and Coastal Resources
• Trade and Environment
• Environmental

• Cornell University (A.B., 1989)(Phi Beta Kappa)
• Harvard Law School (J.D., magna cum laude, 1993)
• Harvard Law Review (1991-1993)

• Pennsylvania (active, non-resident) (1994)
• District of Columbia (2006)
• American Bar Association
• U.S. District Court, District of Columbia
• ABA Standing Committee on Environmental Law
• American Society of International Law (2009 Annual Meeting Program Committee)

Mr. LaMotte practices in the area of international and U.S. environmental, climate change, and oceans law.   As co-chair of the firm’s International Environmental Practice Group, he represents clients in matters relating to international environmental and oceans-related regulatory regimes, and advises clients on multi-jurisdictional product compliance regulatory matters.  He also serves as co-chair of the firm's Climate Change Practice Group, where he advises clients on both the emerging U.S. climate change regimes and the evolving international climate change framework. 

RELEVANT EXPERIENCE AND REPRESENTATIVE MATTERS

Mr. LaMotte served for over ten years as an international lawyer at the U.S. Department of State, where he was most recently Deputy Assistant Legal Adviser, and where he represented the U.S. Government in either designing, negotiating or implementing most of the major environmental and oceans agreements and initiatives.  He has extensive experience with complex international dispute resolution and the legal aspects of the United Nations and other international organizations.

Climate Change, Energy Efficiency, and Geoengineering

• Served as a negotiator and legal adviser to U.S. delegation to Kyoto Protocol implementation meetings, including those developing rules for the Protocol's market mechanisms (i.e., the Clean Development Mechanism and Emissions Trading).
• Counsel to the Carbon Offset Providers Coalition.
• Provide strategic advice to multinational corporations on implications of climate change and energy efficiency measures at the state and federal level, including tracking and analysis of key federal cap-and-trade bills and key energy efficiency and green building mandates and incentives.
• Counsel to North American airline industry on a broad range of climate change-related issues, including on matters relating to the development and implementation of a cap-and-trade GHG emissions reduction scheme consistent with the Kyoto Protocol and on proposals to include aviation in the already-existing European Trading System.
• Counsel a Fortune 500 company on the relationship between the global climate change regime and the global stratospheric ozone regime, and the ways in which its business operations may be affected by these multilateral environmental agreements.
• Frequent speaker on international climate change and geoengineering matters.

Chemicals and Substances in Articles

• Served as legal adviser to U.S. delegations in multilateral chemicals forums, including the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, the Rotterdam Convention on Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade, the UNECE Protocol on Pollutant Release and Transfer Registries, the UNEP Global Mercury Program, and the Basel Convention on Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal.
• Represent the semiconductor industry on the new listing of a substance in the Stockholm POPs Convention with critical applications for semiconductor manufacturing.
• Advise and represent pharmaceutical companies seeking essential use exemptions under the Montreal Protocol and U.S. Clean Air Act.
• Advise and represent electronics importers on the U.S. excise tax on substances manufactured with ozone-depleting substances.
• Advise and represent global crop protection trade association on matters relating to the Rotterdam Convention.
• Advise multinational agrosciences company on the listing of substances under the Rotterdam Convention.
• Advise chemicals manufacturing and electronics companies on compliance with chemicals-related market access regulations, including REACH, RoHS, and other national-level chemical and article import notification schemes.

Oceans Law and Marine Pollution

• Served as legal adviser or negotiator to U.S. delegations in numerous multilateral oceans-related forums, including deep seabed mining regulations at the International Seabed Authority; meeting of the States Parties to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS); marine pollution agreements at the International Maritime Organization (IMO); negotiation of the UNESCO Convention on Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage; and the Protocol on Land-Based Sources of Marine Pollution. 
• Counsel to leading company pursuing ocean iron fertilization as a tool for long-term carbon sequestration, including input on measures under review in the London Convention/London Protocol.
• Counsel to leading company engaged in archaeologically sensitive exploration and recovery of deep-water shipwrecks.
• Advise companies about compliance with Antarctic Treaty System agreements.
• Advise non-governmental organization regarding identification of vessels engaged in illegal, unregulated, and unreported fishing.

Biotechnology and Biodiversity

• Advise consumer product manufacturers on environmental due diligence and compliance implications of products including or derived from natural ingredients.
• Advise forest products sector on international illegal logging initiatives and domestic implementation of the Lacey Act and relationship with international trade rules.
• Advise ag-biotech companies regarding the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety and its global implementation and implications for GMO product approvals.

AWARDS AND APPOINTMENTS

• Appointed by the President of the American Bar Association to the ABA Standing Committee on Environmental Law (3-year term)
• Appointed by President of the American Society of International Law to serve as Co-Chair of the Society’s 2010 Annual Meeting
• Recipient of numerous U.S. Department of State Superior Honor Awards
• Recipient of EPA gold and silver medals for work on multilateral environmental agreements
• Recipient of the Federal Bar Association’s 2001 Younger Lawyer Award

BACKGROUND

• Judicial clerk to the Honorable Judith Rogers on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
• Ford Fellow in Public International Law, 1993-1994
• 1993 magna cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School
• Book Review and Commentary Editor on the Harvard Law Review, 1991-1993