Jonathan D. Brightbill

Jon represents public and private companies, corporate officers, and other individuals across white collar, regulatory defense, and government and internal investigation matters, rulemaking challenges and administrative litigation, and complex commercial disputes, citizen suits, class actions, and environmental torts. His commercial litigation experience encompasses business disputes, false and deceptive advertising, consumer protection and fraud, securities and disclosure litigation, and False Claims Act matters. He also has significant experience in antitrust and unfair competition matters, as well as intellectual property litigation involving trademarks, patents, and trade secrets.

Jon served as the nation’s lead environmental civil and criminal enforcement official and litigator as Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Environment & Natural Resources Division (ENRD) of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). Jon led ENRD’s 425 lawyers, overseeing 6,500 active matters and managing an annual budget of more than US$150M. Jon brings rare insight from the most senior levels of DOJ on white collar and regulatory enforcement, as well as on federal policymaking and rulemaking development and challenges. He speaks from experience on government decision-making processes and the arguments and perspectives that move government regulators and enforcers, best advising and positioning clients to respond to challenges.

Jon is an experienced trial and appellate lawyer, having spent years litigating and arguing many of the federal government’s most environmental and natural resource-related cases in the district courts and courts of appeals during his time with the DOJ. He also litigates cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. Jon represents public and private companies and trade associations across a range of issues. At the D.C. Circuit, Jon argued the much-publicized West Virginia v. EPA case, sub nom., and the Major Questions Doctrine, which the Supreme Court later recognized and established as national law. Additional notable cases included Navigable Waters Protection Rule and Clean Water Rule Repeal (10th Cir., district courts), the Affordable Clean Energy Rule (D.C. Cir.), defense of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) actions on tolerances under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), and the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FDCA) (9th Cir. en banc), among numerous others. Jon represented the United States in trial courts in both enforcement and defensive cases, including the federal enforcement action against Jeffrey Lowe and the Tiger King Park—of Netflix fame—securing a first-of-its-kind injunction for violations of the Endangered Species Act and Animal Welfare Act.

Jon is a national leader in environmental and “greenwashing” litigation and ESG matters. He defends clients in complex civil litigation, class actions, consumer deception, and public interest group suits, particularly regarding alleged environmental violations, the presence (or absence) of environmental contaminants or chemical constituents in products or food, sustainability, and other related claims. Jon counsels clients and corporate boards on ESG disclosure, climate, and sustainability, and helps them navigate and respond to public and shareholder interests.

Jon litigates environmental, natural resource, and energy cases nationwide and responds to government enforcement and investigations, covering all the major environmental and natural resources statutes, such as the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, FIFRA (pesticides), FDCA (food safety), TSCA (toxics), CERCLA (land remediation), RCRA (waste), Natural Gas Act, Federal Power Act, Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, Occupational Health and Safety Act, National Environmental Policy Act, Endangered Species Act, Migratory Bird Treaty Act, Marine Mammal Protection Act and Dolphin Protection Consumer Information Act, Federal Land Policy and Management Act, and numerous other land and resource management statutes. This included dozens of complex, multiparty CERCLA cost allocation cases, reflecting novel statutory and other interpretative issues litigated to the U.S. Supreme Court. His practice also includes litigation before administrative agencies, including EPA, FERC, and DOE.

Jon has unmatched experience litigating legal and technical issues relating to climate change. He argued in the courts of appeals—including the D.C. Circuit—regarding the most significant climate change regulations by EPA, as well as the preemptive scope of the Clean Air Act. Jon also litigated climate change-related credit and trading schemes and international agreements in district court. During Jon’s time in leadership at ENRD, it successfully defeated one of the most wide-ranging lawsuits regarding climate change to date, obtaining a stay pending interlocutory appeal and dismissal just weeks before a scheduled three-month trial on federal government liability for climate change. In addition, Jon adds years of experience litigating false-advertising, consumer fraud, and financial-disclosures issues to effectively counsel clients on climate-related financial risk, ESG disclosures, and “green”-advertising issues.  

While serving at the DOJ, Jon served with a U.S. delegation to China. There, he met with Chinese environmental enforcement officials, met leading judges on China’s environmental court, and attended and taught seminars at the Chinese National Prosecutors College in Zhengzhou, PRC. A focus of the trip’s meetings and seminars included comparative aspects of United States and Chinese law and evolving practices and standards in the enforcement of Chinese environmental law.  

A successful trial lawyer prior to working at DOJ, Jon was a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of another global law firm. He not only represents clients in court but creatively counsels corporations on balancing business needs and realities with a broad range of litigation risks and compliance obligations.

Jon was an appellate clerk for the Honorable D. Brooks Smith, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. He worked in state government as an executive policy specialist for air, waste, land remediation, and radiation matters at the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.