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Amelie Whelman

504.556.4082

“Environmental law is all about the details, but it also demands an eagle eye perspective on the matter as a whole. My engineering background sets me up to dig in deep, while my legal expertise allows me to strategize to reach my client’s ultimate goal.”

Overview

Clare Bienvenu is an environmental regulatory and litigation lawyer who has practiced in both Louisiana and California, working with clients across the United States. Clare counsels clients regarding complex environmental regulatory, enforcement, and permitting issues spanning the range of air, water, and waste matters. She draws on her significant litigation experience to guide regulatory issues to sound legal outcomes and has successfully defended permitting records and agency decisions in court. Clare uses her engineering background on behalf of clients to navigate complicated regulatory programs and effectively communicate with regulators and consultants on technical matters.

Clare facilitates the permitting and regulatory aspects of major industrial development projects. Her recent experience extends to the energy transition where she has advised on renewable energy, clean energy, and carbon sequestration projects. Clare advises on both the environmental permitting aspects of project development as well as issues surrounding land use, zoning, and local government procedure. Clare has represented clients with land use and zoning matters pending in the parishes of Calcasieu, St. John the Baptist, and St. James. 

Clare’s litigation experience encompasses both administrative and traditional litigation matters. She has successfully defended agency permitting determinations and local government land use decisions. She has litigated CERCLA cost recovery and tort actions for land contamination, oil spill-related actions, zoning matters, tort actions associated with storm water damage, and environmental products liability actions. Clare is admitted to practice in both Louisiana and California courts.

Clare has played a key role in various administrative proceedings and enforcement actions. She has participated in consent decree negotiations and the termination of consent decrees with the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Justice, as well as settlement negotiations with the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality and the California Air Resources Board.

Clare advises on the environmental aspects of large real estate transactions, ensuring appropriate environmental due diligence to protect her client’s interests. She has assisted clients in several substantial site clean-up matters, working to achieve regulatory closure at contaminated sites. Her experience includes the representation of clients as part of potentially responsible party groups formed to negotiate cleanup orders and response actions with state and federal environmental regulatory agencies.

Clare has practiced environmental law at firms in San Francisco and Los Angeles, in addition to New Orleans.

Insights

Highlights

Notable Experience

Renewable Energy

  • Provided permitting advice on several carbon capture and sequestration projects, including projects in Louisiana’s coastal zone.
  • Advised on obtaining California Low Carbon Fuel Standard credits for Louisiana project.
  • Performed regulatory review of subcontractor’s contractual and environmental permitting obligations under offshore wind project.
  • Advised on Louisiana permitting requirements for onshore wind projects.
  • Advised on environmental justice aspects of siting clean energy project.
  • Provided environmental law compliance and land use advice to developer of a major water storage and solar energy project in California.

Air & Water

  • Successfully defended Louisiana Department of Natural Resources, Office of Coastal Management’s coastal use determination for client’s development project in state court litigation.
  • Provided regulatory counsel concerning numerous compliance issues, including advising natural gas company as to how new National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants regulations applied to its facilities under the Clean Air Act and advising chemical companies regarding solid waste and hazardous waste classification of materials used in production process, pursuant to the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA).
  • Counseled clients with respect to oil and gas regulatory issues, including advising oil company regarding discharge release reporting requirements under NPDES permit and the Clean Water Act.
  • Facilitated, negotiated, and enforced insurance coverage for environmental claims on behalf of water utility company.
  • Resolved regulatory enforcement claims brought by the California Air Resources Board based on alleged violation of California consumer products emission standards.
  • Counseled client and negotiated with California agencies regarding diesel truck and generator emission issues.
  • Assisted in negotiating Consent Decrees on behalf of two different natural gas companies involved in enforcement proceedings for potential violations of the Clean Air Act within tribal air sheds in Utah. Parties to the Consent Decree included EPA Region 8 and the U.S. Dept. of Justice.

Land Remediation

  • Represented developer with claims against a municipality arising under CERCLA based on groundwater contamination caused by leaking sewer.
  • Represented adjacent landowner in lawsuit involving a Superfund site, including common law tort claims and CERCLA claims, and involving issues related to acid mine drainage, statutes of limitations, continuing tort, and restoration damages.
  • Represented industry client with legacy CERCLA liabilities attributable to former chemical manufacturing and recycling subsidiaries at Superfund site.
  • Represented multiple clients in environmental cleanups across the country and developed investigations and remediations in accordance with state laws, including Louisiana’s Voluntary Remediation Program and Risk Evaluation Corrective Action Program (RECAP)

Land Use and Zoning

  • Secured complete dismissal in federal court of developer’s claims against municipal client arising from the denial of a proposed lakefront development. Defeated equal protection, due process, and federal and state takings claims by the court’s grant of motions to dismiss, which denied plaintiffs leave to amend and found they failed to plead facts plausibly establishing any viable constitutional claim. Woodward Harbor, LLC, et al. v. City of Mandeville, et al., Civil Action No. 23-5824 (E.D. La.).
  • Ultimately prevailed on behalf of a private developer in a 4½-year zoning dispute involving a $40 million Mississippi River tract, securing reversal by the Louisiana Supreme Court after the trial court and court of appeal invalidated the property’s longstanding industrial zoning. Descendants Project, et al. v. St. John the Baptist Parish, Case No. 2025-C-00543 (40th JDC).

Other Experience

  • Advised client through process of terminating consent decree with EPA.
  • Successfully defended local government land use decision for client’s industrial facility expansion.
  • Performed due diligence for a large portfolio sale of gasoline service stations.
  • Defended and settled California Proposition 65 enforcement claims and counseled clients regarding Proposition 65 compliance issues and risks.
  • Represented large well-known hotelier to resolve flood damage claims based on historic California storm incidents, including a 500-year storm.

Involvement

  • The Foundation for Natural Resources and Energy Law, Member
  • Air & Waste Management Association, Louisiana Section, Member
  • New Orleans Bar Association, Environmental Committee Chair
  • GNO, Inc., GNOwind Alliance Member
  • Louisiana State Bar Association, Section of Environmental Law, Member
  • Women’s Energy Network, Member

Recognition

 

Credentials

Education

  • Tulane University Law School (J.D., magna cum laude, 2004)
  • Texas A&M University (B.S., Civil Engineering, magna cum laude, 2001)

Bar Admissions

  • Louisiana, 2004
  • California, 2013

Court Admissions

  • U.S. District Court, Central District, California
  • U.S. Court of Appeals, District of Columbia

Languages

  • Italian

Clerkships

  • Law Clerk to Administrative Law Judge Richard Mills, U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Administrative Law Judges, 2004-2006
  • Law Clerk to the Honorable Richard Ganucheau, Judge, Civil District Court for the Parish of Orleans, 2002

Presentations

  • "Legal Update: Permit Challenge Trends in Louisiana and Best Practices," Louisiana Section A&WMA, February 26, 2026, Lake Charles, LA
  • "PFAS: Incident Response to Disposal," Louisiana Section A&WMA Conference, October 30, 2025, Baton Rouge, LA 
  • “Recent Developments in Federal and Louisiana Environmental Law," ACC CLE Luncheon, September 19, 2025, New Orleans, LA
  • "Environmental Justice in Permitting Clean Energy Projects," Air & Waste Management Association’s Environmental Justice Conference, December 4-5, 2024
  • "Louisiana's Voluntary Environmental Self-Audit Program," Air & Waste Management Association Louisiana Section Meeting, October 30, 2024, Baton Rouge, LA
  • "Pollution, Salvage, and Wreck Removal Developments," Liskow Maritime Seminar, October 15, 2024, Houston, Texas
  • "Government and Offshore Wind," The Loyola Maritime Law Journal's Windswept, an Offshore Wind Symposium, March 1, 2024, New Orleans, LA
  • Ramboll's Environmental Justice: Fair and Equal Considerations in Business CLE, November 9, 2023, Arlington, VA
  • EJ Panel, Louisiana AWMA Annual Conference, October 29, 2023, Baton Rouge, LA
  • Co-Chair, Institute for Energy Law's Environmental Justice in Energy Mini-Conference, June 14, 2023, Houston, TX

Publications

After Hours

“My biggest thrill is exploring through travel. I’ve visited 29 countries and 5 continents, and I met my husband on one of those trips. At home, I enjoy involving our children in my hobbies, and we’ve recently taken up vegetable gardening.”

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