Maureen Gorsen is a partner in the firm’s Environmental & Land Development Group, her practice focuses on State law, agencies and regulation. She is the former director of the California Department of Toxic Substances Control, where she oversaw the state agency charged with protecting the public health and the environment from toxic harm, cleaning up sites contaminated by toxic substances, ensuring that hazardous waste is managed safely and preventing future pollution. Ms. Gorsen has also been credited for overseeing California’s Green Chemistry Initiative, one of the single most important environmental programs to be implemented in the next decade.
Prior to her appointment as director of the California Department of Toxic Substances Control, Ms. Gorsen served as the deputy secretary for law enforcement and general counsel at the California Environmental Protection Agency, where she was responsible for ensuring that the enforcement efforts of Cal/EPA's various boards, departments and local agencies were carried out in a consistent, effective and coordinated manner to protect public health and the environment.
Maureen Gorsen is a partner in the firm’s Environmental & Land Development Group, her practice focuses on State law, agencies and regulation. She is the former director of the California Department of Toxic Substances Control, where she oversaw the state agency charged with protecting the public health and the environment from toxic harm, cleaning up sites contaminated by toxic substances, ensuring that hazardous waste is managed safely and preventing future pollution. Ms. Gorsen has also been credited for overseeing California’s Green Chemistry Initiative, one of the single most important environmental programs to be implemented in the next decade.
Prior to her appointment as director of the California Department of Toxic Substances Control, Ms. Gorsen served as the deputy secretary for law enforcement and general counsel at the California Environmental Protection Agency, where she was responsible for ensuring that the enforcement efforts of Cal/EPA's various boards, departments and local agencies were carried out in a consistent, effective and coordinated manner to protect public health and the environment.
In addition to her work at Cal/EPA, Ms. Gorsen was a partner with the law firm of Weston, Benshoof, Rochefort, Rubalcava & MacCuish LLP in Los Angeles (now Alston & Bird) for five years.
From 1993 to 1998, Ms. Gorsen was appointed by Governor Pete Wilson as the general counsel for the California Resources Agency where, among other duties, she was responsible for reform and revisions of the 1998 CEQA Guidelines and issues relating to the California Endangered Species Act, the Williamson Act and the Coastal Act.
Ms. Gorsen earned her law degree from Georgetown University, received her master's degree in international energy and environmental policy from Johns Hopkins University, and graduated with a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Pennsylvania.
Ms. Gorsen currently serves on the Advisory Board of the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at University of California, Santa Barbara.