Biography
Brett’s science background as a freshwater ecologist gives him unique insight into managing technical experts, data analysis, and navigating environmental permitting challenges.
Brett has diverse experience identifying and assessing environmental risks and liabilities, managing transactional due diligence, negotiating with regulatory agencies, litigating complex commercial disputes, advising on environmental and water permitting issues related to site selection, securing permits related to project development, and drafting and negotiating contractual provisions concerning environmental aspects of corporate transactions. He has counseled clients on numerous regulatory enforcement disputes related to alleged violations of the Clean Air Act, RCRA, and the Clean Water Act.
He has particular experience representing global, multi-national, and local clients in various sectors, such as oil and gas, electric and water utilities, pipelines and midstream, private equity, financial institutions, real estate development, waste management, agricultural and ranching operations, manufacturing, renewable energy, mining, pesticides, batteries, and chemicals.
Before joining B&D, Brett was an asset manager for a private equity firm focused on water and climate-related investments. He developed monetization strategies and sourced acquisitions for the firm’s surface and groundwater resources portfolio in Texas. Brett previously practiced environmental law and commercial litigation at law firms in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Fort Worth, Texas, and also clerked with leading global private investment firm TPG Capital.
Brett authors articles on groundwater contamination at the intersection of energy and water law, and is a regular speaker on various water quality issues, including PFAS contamination.
Brett graduated magna cum laude from Texas A&M University School of Law, where he was an articles editor on the Texas A&M Law Review. He earned his master's degree at Louisiana State University and his bachelor's degree from Rhodes College, where he played baseball. Before law school, he worked on commercial fishing boats as a fisheries observer in the Bering Sea and served as a northern fur seal research assistant on St. Paul Island, Alaska.
Education
- Rhodes College (B.S., 2009)
- Biology (major); History & Environmental Science (minors)
- Louisiana State University (M.S., 2013)
- Freshwater Ecology – School of Renewable Natural Resources
- Thesis: Effects of Physicochemical Properties & Macrohabitat on the Foraging Ecology of the Centrarchid Assemblage of the Atchafalaya River Basin, Louisiana
- Texas A&M University (J.D., magna cum laude, 2016)
- Texas A&M Law Review, Articles Editor
- ConocoPhillips Texas A&M Energy Institute Fellowship, 2015-16
- Hartrick Scholar Writing Award, Institute for Energy Law, February 2016
- Inductee, National Order of Scribes, American Society of Legal Writers, May 2016
Bar Admissions
Court Admissions
- U.S. District Court – Eastern District of Texas
Professional Affiliations
- Third Leadership Class, Institute for Energy Law, 2020-21
- Co-Chair - Programs Subcommittee for Young Energy Professionals, Institute for Energy Law, 2022-23
- National Ground Water Association
- International Water Resources Association
Publications
- Hydraulic Fracturing Interactions with and Implications for Groundwater, Ch. 13" in Regulating Water Security in Unconventional Oil & Gas (2020 – Springer Publishing)
- Navigating the Confluence: Sources of Reconciliation Flowing Between the Human Right to Water and Economic Efficiency, 28 Duke Environmental Law & Policy Forum 105 (2017)
- Come and "Take" It: Whooping Cranes, Texas Water Rights, Endangered Species Act Liability, and Reconciling Ecological Scientific Testimony Within the Context of Proximate Causation, 34(1) UCLA Journal of Environmental Law & Policy 99 (2016)
- Embracing the Water-Energy Contradiction: The Pebble Mine Conflict and Regulatory Implications Associated with Renewable Energy's Dependence on Non-Renewable Copper, 19(2) University of Denver Water Law Review 213 (2016)
- Diet Partitioning in a Diverse Centrarchid Assemblage in the Atchafalaya River Basin, Louisiana, 144 Transactions of the American Fisheries Society 780-791 (2015)
