Susan L. Stephens

Shareholder

Practice & Industry Groups

Overview

Susan Stephens has 30 years of experience practicing environmental & natural resource and administrative law, including rulemaking practice and procedure and administrative litigation. Her practice focuses on balancing property and resource use with competing private, governmental and citizen interests.

Susan is Board Certified by The Florida Bar in State & Federal Government and Administrative Practice.  She represents clients before various federal, state, regional, and local environmental agencies in connection with the obtainment, interpretation, compliance and enforcement of environmental permits for regulated industrial, commercial, and development activities. This representation includes matters related to resource extraction, wetlands and mitigation banks, agritourism, wastewater, submerged lands, and state and federal listed wildlife. This has included significant experience working to obtain wetland permits at the state and federal level. She also has experience with compliance and enforcement matters involving unanticipated bypasses, “Act of God” emergency authorizations, spills, unpermitted wetland or species impacts, or similar compliance and enforcement issues.

Susan has extensive experience assisting in the development of policy and regulatory initiatives, which has included the development of Florida’s major regulatory projects such as its State 404 Permit Program, Title V Air Operating Permit Program, National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Wastewater Permitting Program, and state listed species permitting guidelines. She also has experience with complex administrative and judicial challenges to proposed and final permits in both the state and federal arenas.   

Additionally, Susan has assisted clients in conducting internal self-audits for environmental compliance and environmental due diligence reviews for real estate transactions. She has represented clients before the Department of Transportation on matters such as access management and activities in highway rights of way.

Prior to joining the Firm, Susan was a Shareholder in a boutique law firm and, before that, a Partner at an international law firm, both in Tallahassee, Florida.

Areas of Concentration

  • Clean Water Act 404 permitting
  • Consumptive use permitting
  • Environmental compliance, due diligence and permitting
  • Environmental resource permitting
  • Mining/Minerals/Resource Extraction
  • Mitigation banks
  • National Environmental Policy Act compliance
  • State-owned lands
  • Submerged lands
  • Wastewater/Stormwater
  • Water Resources
  • Wetlands
  • Wildlife/Imperiled Species

Industry Sectors

  • Agricultural interests
  • Chemical blending and manufacturing
  • Glass manufacturing
  • Mining operations
  • Paper mill operations
  • Phosphoric acid, fertilizer and feed manufacturing operations
  • Power generation and transmission operations
  • Real estate developers

Notable Experience

  • Represented a major aggregates mining company and property owners in obtaining local approval and state and federal environmental permits, including in public hearings and administrative challenges, for limerock mines in Levy, Lee, and Taylor Counties, Florida.
  • Represented major phosphate mining companies in obtaining local, state, and federal environmental and wildlife permits, including in public hearings, administrative challenges, and appeals in state and federal court, for multiple phosphate mine projects in Central Florida.
  • Represented real estate developers in obtaining state and federal environmental and water use permits for mixed-use and residential developments in Central Florida.
  • Represented a paper mill in Georgia in obtaining and renewing wastewater discharge permits, including in an administrative challenge to the initial permit, for the discharge of mill effluent in Florida.
  • Represented a real estate developer in an action for civil penalties brought in circuit court for alleged environmental permit violations associated with two developments in South Florida, obtaining a voluntary dismissal with prejudice for the client.
  • Represented a real estate development in successfully defending challenges to state highway access permits issued by the Florida Department of Transportation at the Division of Administrative Hearings and Second District Court of Appeals.
  • Represented development companies in Central Florida in enforcement and permitting actions brought by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission related to gopher tortoises.
  • Represented development companies in Central and South Florida in technical assistance and permitting negotiations with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Credentials

Education

  • J.D., with highest honors, Florida State University College of Law, 1993
    • Order of the Coif
    • Law Review, Associate Editor
    • Writing and Research Editor
  • B.A., with high distinction, Ohio Northern University, 1989

Admissions

  • Florida
  • United States Supreme Court
  • United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
  • United States District Court for the Northern and Middle Districts of Florida

Certifications

  • Board Certified by The Florida Bar in State & Federal Government & Administrative Practice

Professional & Community Involvement

  • American Bar Association, Administrative and Regulatory Law Section, 1993-Present
  • American Bar Association, Environment, Energy and Resources Section (SEER), 1993-Present
    • Sponsorship Committee, Chair, 2023-2024
    • Executive Council, 2021-2024
    • Select Committee on Marketing & Communications, Chair, 2021-2023
    • Trends Magazine, Editorial Board member, 2021-Present
    • Endangered Species Committee
      • At Large Vice Chair, 2020-2021
      • Chair, 2019-2020
      • Co-Chair, 2018-2019
    • Water Quality and Wetlands Committee, Communications Vice Chair, 2018-2021
  • Southern Shakespeare, Board of Directors, 2023-Present
  • American Bar Foundation (ABF), Fellow, 2022-Present
  • Adjunct Professor, Florida State University College of Law, 2021-2023
  • The Florida Bar
    • Administrative Law Section (ALS), 1993-Present
    • Environmental and Land Use Law Section (ELULS), 1993-Present
    • Continuing Legal Education Committee, 2005-2008
    • Journal Editorial Board, 1998-2002
  • Boy Scouts of America, Suwannee River Area Council, Executive Board Member, 2022-Present
  • Killearn United Methodist Church
    • Trustee, 2007-2010, 2019-2021
    • iServe volunteer, 2017-2022
    • Staff Parish Relations Committee, 2016-2018
      • Chair, 2017-2018
  • Boy Scout Troop 16
    • Charter Organization Representative, 2023-Present
    • Committee Member, 2010-2017
      • Secretary, 2012-2016
    • Venture Crew Leader, 2017-2023
  • Theatre Tallahassee Board, 2013-2017
    • President, 2015-2017
    • Vice-President, 2014-2015

Recognition

  • The Best Lawyers in America®, 2023-Present
  • Florida Super Lawyers, 2024-Present
  • Florida Trend‘s Florida Legal Elite, 2012
  • AV-Distinguished by Martindale-Hubbell

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