Partner, Washington DC
1900 K Street NW
Washington, DC 20006-1108

TEL: 202.496.7370
FAX: 202.496.7756
EMAIL: fanderson@mckennalong.com

PROFILE

Frederick R. Anderson's practice ranges across strategic corporate counseling, litigation, enforcement, regulatory affairs, and crisis management. His experience is especially concentrated in the environment, energy and natural resources development, and science and technology.

Representative current matters cover federal and state health risk analysis, a number of climate change and alternative energy projects, the Clean Air Act, environmental impact assessment for new projects, negotiated solutions to federal enforcement actions, and environmental and human rights aspects of international project development.

His litigation experience involves a variety of federal and state statutes and causes of action across the country. The stakes are high, including Alaskan offshore oil and gas development, wind energy projects off of Cape Cod and on Lake Ontario, natural resources damages claims in New Jersey, a half-billion dollar biomedical research complex in Florida, a major resort at the Grand Canyon, challenges to New York's and California's fuel content regulations, and defense of a proposed southwestern four-state fuel pipeline.

In avoiding adversarial proceedings, Mr. Anderson has domestic and international experience resolving complex multi-party disputes between companies, governments, financial institutions, non-governmental organizations, and indigenous groups involving oil and gas development, hardrock mining, hydroelectric facilities, energy transmission corridors (fuels, oil, gas, electrical), chemical production, dredging projects, site remediation and redevelopment, and risk assessment science for hazards that may cost hundreds of millions of dollars to abate. His clients have included manufacturing and aerospace companies, chemical, energy, metals, minerals, food packaging, and forest product producers, investment bankers, states, and private individuals.

Mr. Anderson's practice involves regular engagement with major federal departments, independent agencies, and executive offices and the global financial institutions based in Washington. He also provides international counseling on project finance and development. He has counseled clients in Central and South America, Africa, and the Pacific regions regarding greenhouse gas emissions management, electrical generation and mining, forest projects,  natural gas development, hazardous waste disposal, environmental regulation, and mining and smelting.  

Special Leadership Roles

Mr. Anderson plays a prominent role in law-science issues. He serves as a member of the executive committee of the National Academy of Science's standing Panel on Science, Technology & Law. He just served a three year term as a member of the Academy’s Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate. He was a member of the Academy's Commission on Life Sciences and its Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology. He has served on Academy committees involving industry competitiveness and environmental protection, high-level nuclear waste disposal, public land management, hazardous waste disposal, and federal data quality. With the support of a dozen major scientific institutions, he filed a brief amici curiae in the Supreme Court on behalf of 58 Nobel Laureates and other prominent scientists supporting the National Academy of Sciences in a suit involving the Federal Advisory Committee Act.

Mr. Anderson is chairman of the boards of the Center for International Environmental Law and the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development. He was the chairman of the American Bar Association's Commission on Inter-American Affairs. He led a special ABA mission to Chile in 1988. As chairman of the ABA's Standing Committee on Environmental Law, he played a key role in organizing international conferences in Europe and Canada on acid rain, and in Mexico City on environmental issues.

Mr. Anderson, former dean of the law school at American University, served for ten years as the first full-time President of the Environmental Law Institute. He served on a twelve member congressional study commission created by the Superfund legislation to examine toxic tort recovery for injury from hazardous substances. He was Chairman of The Advisory Working Group on Environmental Sanctions for the US Sentencing Commission and has been both a member of and a consultant to the Administrative Conference of the United States. His analysis of the Superfund program resulted in the adoption by the Administrative Conference of a policy favoring a negotiated solutions to disputes about waste site cleanups.