Bill Ross, former Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources, has returned to Brooks, Pierce, McLendon, Humphrey & Leonard, LLP to practice environmental and natural resources law. He will be resident in the firm’s Raleigh office.
Ross led the State’s primary environmental protection and natural resources conservation agency from 2001-2009. At Brooks Pierce, he will focus on the firm’s green growth and sustainability practice.
Currently, Ross is a visiting scholar at Duke University and a natural resources policy consultant. At Duke, Ross is part of a special partnership between the Nicholas School of the Environment and the Comprehensive Cancer Center. The partnership explores environmental links to cancer in an effort to improve people’s health and the quality of the environment.
As a natural resources policy consultant, Ross has worked on innovative ways to conserve, protect, and sustain natural resources while also meeting economic, social, and (in some cases) defense objectives. Two examples of that work are America’s Longleaf, an initiative to restore longleaf pine across the southeast, and Veridea, the proposed sustainable, mixed-use, transit-oriented, pedestrian-friendly development in Apex. In his new role at Brooks Pierce, Ross will continue his work at Duke and on these other projects.
Brooks Pierce Managing Partner Ed Winslow says, “Bill Ross is our friend and former partner. We are delighted to have him back. He was a valuable member of our firm before his appointment as Secretary of DENR, and we now look forward to his contribution to our focus on green growth and sustainability. North Carolina is in a great position to lead the rest of the country forward in these areas, and our firm is excited to be a part of that effort.”