Overview
Susan L. 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 & 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 with state agencies to obtain State 404 wetland permits. 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 as well as 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 and State 404 permitting
- Consumptive use permitting
- Environmental compliance, due diligence and 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
Representative 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 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 permits for mixed-use developments in Central Florida.
- Represented a real estate developer in obtaining water use permits for a mixed-use development 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 an action challenging its driveway access permit issued by the Florida Department of Transportation for a proposed development project in Sarasota County, and in challenging action taken by the Department to modify its driveway access at an existing shopping complex in Miami-Dade County.
- Represented a major aggregates mining company in addressing unilateral action taken by a neighboring municipality in Central Florida that adversely affected its access to and use of its principal truck haul route.
- Represented a glass manufacturing company before the Jacksonville Environmental Quality Division in addressing alleged air permitting violations at its facility in Jacksonville, Florida.
- Represented real estate developers before the Florida Department of Environmental Protection in obtaining “State 404” wetland permits.
- Represented a development company in Central Florida in an enforcement and permitting action 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.
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-Present
- Executive Council, 2021-2024
- Select Committee on Marketing & Communications, Chair, 2021-Present
- 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-Present
- 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
- Florida Limerock & Aggregate Institute (FLAI), Associate Member
- 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
Publications & Presentations
Events:
404 Permits & the Impact on FL Water Quality
Florida Water Quality Summit|August 2024
Land Development News Update, Publications:
What's Developing | Summer 2024
Stearns Weaver Miller News Update|August 2024
Publications:
Wetlands Law and Policy: Understanding Section 404, Second Edition
American Bar Association, Authors Susan Lynne Stephens, Kim Diana Connolly, Sarah P Jarboe Sponsors Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources|July 2024
Events:
Environmental Permits Under Attack: Preparing for and Defending Your Permits and Other Approvals
38th Annual Environmental Permitting Summer School|July 2024
Events:
Federal Wetlands Permitting Update
38th Annual Environmental Permitting Summer School|July 2024
Events:
What's New In Environmental Resource Permitting
38th Annual Environmental Permitting Summer School|July 2024
Events, Land Development News Update, Publications:
Understanding Changes to Florida’s Stormwater Management Rules
July 2024
Publications:
Federal court strikes down Florida’s CWA section 404 permit program
American Bar Association|May 2024
Newsroom
Firm Announcements:
Susan Stephens Elected a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation
July 2022
Firm Announcements:
Stearns Weaver Miller Expands Tallahassee Office Space and Offered Services
February 2022
In the Media:
Movers: New Arrivals
The National Law Journal|October 2021
Firm Announcements:
Carl Eldred Joins Stearns Weaver Miller’s Statewide Land Development, Zoning & Environmental Practice
September 2021
Firm Announcements:
Stearns Weaver Miller Expands Statewide Land Development, Zoning & Environmental Practice with Five New Additions
September 2021