Michelle's focus is on environmental litigation, environmental due diligence, energy law and land use for a variety of clients, including utilities, residential developers and other real estate developers and energy development companies. She chairs the firm's Renewable Energy Practice Group, and is Editor of FOREcast, the Group's periodic newsletter reporting on funding opportunities for renewable energy projects.

Michelle represents clients in both federal and state courts in litigation involving CERCLA, Endangered Species Act, water quality, including Clean Water Act permitting compliance, NEPA challenges, and federal claims actions against the United States. Michelle has also represented clients in a variety of administrative proceedings before state agencies including the Colorado Public Utilities Commission, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and the Colorado Office of Public Safety.

Specifically, Michelle's litigation experience includes representing development clients in actions involving the recovery of costs to remediate contaminated properties under CERCLA and the indemnification provisions of the Defense Authorization Act. Most recently, she successfully represented a group of residential homebuilders in a federal court lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Defense to recover costs incurred by the homebuilders to clean up asbestos-contaminated property owned by the homebuilders on a former military base. Prior to that, Michelle worked as part of a litigation team that assisted another development client to reach a favorable settlement in a CERCLA cost recovery action, involving the remediation of munitions on a former military base. 

Michelle's litigation experience also includes current representation of a major California water district in Endangered Species Act litigation in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California. She has also represented a several clients in cases filed in federal court under the federal Clean Water Act, representing both defendants and plaintiffs on a variety of complex water quality issues. 

Michelle also represented a major power company in the consultation process with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Services under the federal Endangered Species Act in conjunction with relicensing of its federal hydropower facility. She represented this same client in the first ever administrative matter filed pursuant to the Energy Policy Act of 2005 challenging mandatory ESA conditions proposed for the company's renewed hydropower license. The administrative matter ultimately resulted in a favorable settlement for the company on many of the challenged issues. Michelle's ESA experience also includes assisting a variety of development entities evaluate ESA impacts in conjunction with residential and commercial development projects.

In addition to her litigation experience, Michelle regularly advises clients on environmental compliance and liability matters, including ongoing regulatory compliance issues, liability associated with the acquisition of contaminated property and strategies for minimizing environmental liability exposure.

Prior to joining Brownstein, Michelle served as general counsel for the Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, a nonprofit organization in Atlanta, where her work focused on Clean Water Act permitting and administrative litigation. Michelle began her legal career at Smith, Gambrell and Russell, where she represented and advised clients on a wide range of environmental matters, including endangered species, water quality laws, hazardous waste laws and regulations, underground storage tank issues and state nuisance, trespass and riparian rights laws.