Biography
Drew is fast becoming one of the nation’s preeminent clean water lawyers.
As Co-Chair of the firm’s Water practice, Drew maintains a practice that spans high-stakes litigation, enforcement, and regulatory counseling. He helps find solutions to pressing water pollution control and water quality problems. Drew’s recent accomplishments include representing San Francisco in City & County of San Francisco v. EPA, No. 23-753 (certiorari granted May 28, 2024), in which the U.S. Supreme Court will clarify the limits EPA’s authority to impose restrictions in Clean Water Act Permits to protect water quality. Drew helped San Francisco secure a spot on the Supreme Court’s vanishingly small merits docket, in just one of many critical cases he has brought in state and federal appellate courts to challenge agency and local government actions.
Public and private sector clients seek Drew to defend major Clean Water Act enforcement actions. His docket includes representing multiple large cities and public utilities in cases brought by the U.S. Department of Justice, EPA, and state regulators seeking both significant capital improvements and changes to municipal operations to reduce wet weather discharges. Drew negotiated one of the first federal consent decrees to resolve allegations that the development of utility-scale solar power facilities violated the Clean Water Act’s construction stormwater requirements. He has also defended multiple citizen suits, including multiple cases of first impression, in which he secured favorable resolutions through aggressive advocacy and command of the Clean Water Act’s complex regulatory scheme.
Drew helps clients in a variety of sectors, ranging from public wastewater utilities to information technology companies, develop cost-effective solutions to their clean water regulatory challenges. He routinely advises clients, including semiconductor manufacturers, data center operators, and chemical manufacturers, on aspects of the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permitting process and permit compliance. Drew also counsels clients in developing clean water compliance programs and strategies to address the most difficult water quality issues. He helps organizations seeking water quality standards variances, leads them through the total maximum daily load (TMDL) development process, and represents them in water quality litigation when necessary.
Education
- University of Virginia (B.A., 2008)
- Biology and History
- Phi Beta Kappa
- Echols Scholar
- Georgetown University (J.D., magna cum laude, 2011)
- Order of the Coif
Bar Admissions
Court Admissions
- U.S. Supreme Court
- U.S. District Court – Eastern District of Pennsylvania
- U.S. Court of Appeals - Ninth Circuit
- Virginia Supreme Court
Honors & Awards
- 2021-2023 "Best Lawyers: Ones To Watch," a Best Lawyers® publication, for Environmental Law
- Super Lawyers, part of Thomson Reuters, Washington, DC, Rising Star (2020-2022)