Our People

Donald W. Fowler specializes in federal and state trials and appeals in the areas of environmental law, toxic torts, and pharmaceutical products liability.  His practice also emphasizes litigation against the federal government, and he is experienced in environmental insurance coverage litigation.  In 2017, Mr. Fowler was selected as Environmental Lawyer of the Year by Corporate Livewire M&A Awards.  In 2015, he was selected by Corporate America's Legal Elite Awards for "Best in Product Liability Litigation-Washington, DC." 

Mr. Fowler represents major manufacturing concerns and site owners in trials and appeals of class actions and mass torts involving personal injury, property damage, and/or medical monitoring damage claims associated with alleged exposures to ionizing radiation and various chemical compounds, including solvents and benzene derivatives.  He also represents a major pharmaceutical manufacturer in the national defense of personal injury claims associated with oncological drugs, migraine treatments, and anti-cholesterols.  He has successfully defended such cases whether filed individually, as part of a mass tort, or as a class action.

Mr. Fowler’s environmental practice includes representation of major corporations in defense of both actual and anticipated litigation brought by federal and state natural resource trustees seeking recovery for damages to natural resources under federal and state law.  See, e.g., New Mexico v. General Electric, 467 F.3d 1223 (10th Cir. 2006).  He also represents companies in litigation and before the Environmental Protection Agency in matters arising under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and Superfund, including private cost recovery actions.  He has designed and implemented compliance programs, conducted environmental audits and due diligence reviews, and negotiated environmental aspects of real estate and other transactions on behalf of many of our corporate clients.  He frequently authors amicus curiae briefs on behalf of our toxics and pharmaceutical clients, and he lectures at private and public seminars on developments in these fields.

Mr. Fowler is listed in the 2023 edition of Best Lawyers in America for Environmental Law and Litigation-Environmental. He is also recognized for his practice of Environmental Litigation in the 2023 edition of Lawdragon, "The Lawdragon Green 500: Leaders in Environmental Law," as he was in 2021.  He is named in the 2022 edition of Super Lawyers for Environmental Litigation and in American Registry as one of America's Most Honored Lawyers for 2022.  In 2021, he was named as one of America's Top 100 High Stakes Litigators for Washington, DC.  Mr. Fowler is also listed in Who's Who Legal: Environment, and recognized by The Expert Network as a "Distinguished Lawyer."  In 2015, he received the Burton Distinguished Legal Writing Award for his article "Federal Clean Air Act Preemption of Public Nuisance Claims: The Case for Supreme Court Resolution."

Following law school, Mr. Fowler joined the Land and Natural Resources Division of the Department of Justice, where he spent three years as a trial attorney conducting environmental litigation before the federal appellate and trial courts.  Before joining the Firm, he also served as Deputy Assistant Administrator of the Commerce Department’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Associations & Affiliations Fellow of the American College of Environmental Lawyers Member of the Defense Research Institute