Ann Claassen is counsel with the Latham & Watkins’ Environment, Land & Resources Department. She regularly advises clients on matters arising under TSCA, FIFRA, EPCRA, CAA, CWA, RCRA, CERCLA, FFDCA, CPSA, Prop 65, REACH and other regulatory and voluntary programs of federal, state and foreign agencies, particularly with respect to chemical assessment and management. Ms. Claassen enables companies to understand exactly how regulatory programs do and don’t apply to their operations. She is able to understand the company’s scientific and technical parameters and how those specifics fit within complex regulatory mazes. She helps clients to understand how the regulators think and how to tailor their programs and advocacy accordingly. Her written analyses of the application of regulatory law to the client’s facts are lucid and instructive. Ms. Claassen provides compliance counseling, advocates with agencies—including EPA, FDA, CPSC, NTP, CDC, DOT, OSHA, CARB, OEHHA, Environment Canada and Health Canada—assists clients in enforcement matters, and assists clients with product stewardship and communications issues. Much of her work involves integration of legal principles with toxicology and risk assessment science, and she is an excellent translator between lawyers and technical personnel.
Ms. Claassen is a co-author of the Environmental Law Institute (ELI) ELR TSCA Deskbook (2nd Edition) and of the ELR Pesticide Regulation Deskbook . She has taught the TSCA portion of the NYU Summer Institute in Environmental Law, the Chemical Regulation portion of the ELI Western Environmental Law Bootcamp, and has made presentations at various other environmental seminars and conferences.
Ms. Claassen received her BA in Biochemistry from Colorado College and undertook graduate studies in Physical Chemistry at the University of New Mexico. Prior to entering law school, she worked as an environmental consultant focusing on water quality and water resource issues, and she headed the ground water monitoring portion of the New Mexico RCRA program in the mid-1980’s.
Ms. Claassen received her JD from the University of New Mexico in 1989. She clerked for Judge James M. Sprouse, US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, for a year prior to beginning her practice with Latham in Washington, D.C. In 2006-2008, she took a sabbatical in the San Francisco Bay area, tutoring high school students in chemistry and various other subjects.
