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1350 I Street, N.W.
Suite 700
Washington, DC 20005-3311
Washington

• Biotechnology
• 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)

• District of Columbia
• Pennsylvania (inactive)
• American Bar Association
• U.S. District Court, District of Columbia

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 is a member of the Firm’s Management Committee. 

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.

Chemicals, Substances in Articles, Product-Related
Environmental Compliance, and Supply Chain Management

• Advise chemicals, pesticides, and electronics companies on compliance with chemicals-related market access regulations, including REACH, RoHS, and other national-level chemical and article import notification schemes.
• 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.
• Represented the semiconductor industry on the new listing of a substance in the Stockholm POPs Convention with critical applications for semiconductor manufacturing.
• Advised and represented pharmaceutical companies seeking essential use exemptions for ozone-depleting substances 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 companies on the listing of substances under the Rotterdam Convention and POPs treaties.

Biotechnology and Biodiversity

• Advise ag-biotech companies regarding the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety and its global implementation and implications for GMO product approvals.
• 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.

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.
• Advised 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.

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.

AWARDS AND APPOINTMENTS

• Adjunct Lecturer at American University's Washington College of Law for WCL's Summer Program on the Environment (“International Business and the Environment”)
• Appointed by the President of the American Bar Association to the ABA Standing Committee on Environmental Law (3-year term) (2008-2010)
• Appointed by President of the American Society of International Law to serve as Co-Chair of the Society’s 2010 Annual Meeting
• Recognized in The International Who's Who of Environment Lawyers 2010, 2011, and 2012 
• 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

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS AND COMMUNITY SERVICE

• Member, Executive Council, American Society of International Law
• Member, Board of Governors, Washington Foreign Law Society
• Member, Board of Directors, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, Capitol Chapter