About Us > Personnel

Valerie Ann Lee J.D., M.Sc.Civ.Eng., President

Ms. Valerie Lee, the President and founder of Environment International Ltd., has more than 25 years of combined experience as an environmental mediator, attorney, and engineer. Recognized for her outstanding expertise, she has conducted training internationally educating judges, lawyers, and environmental scientists regarding the development of environmental statutes and regulations, alternative dispute resolution techniques, strategic enforcement schemes, and institutions to protect and manage the environment under sustainability strategies. Ms. Lee's strong science and engineering background gives her a capability exceptional among lawyers to deal with environmental issues and problems. Ms. Lee received an undergraduate degree magna cum laude in biology from Bates College, a masters in Civil Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1976 and her J.D. from the Yale Law School in 1984. Ms. Lee has a broad range of interdisciplinary professional experience in the environmental arena.

Ms. Lee has managed and facilitated teams of experts from diverse disciplines to determine the extent of environmental injury from pollution and to develop innovative plans to restore injured ecosystems. She also supervised scientific teams investigating the scientific basis for liability and cost allocation at Superfund sites. She has studied the effects of air pollution on terrestrial ecosystems and the effects of water pollution on biodiversity. Ms. Lee has participated in the development of air quality regulations. She has provided scientific/legal analyses to members of the U.S. Congress regarding the implications of proposed environmental protection statutes. Ms. Lee has drafted water quality legislation adopted at the state level. She has presented testimony before state congressional committees and federal environmental regulatory bodies. She has analyzed local land use laws for their environmental implications.

Ms. Lee has ten years of experience as an environmental litigator representing both public and private clients. For over six years she was a trial attorney for the Environmental Enforcement Section of the U.S. Department of Justice and litigated a variety of environmental cases involving air, water, hazardous waste, and natural resource damages obtaining over $35 million in judgments and settlements. She also facilitated the development of innovative interagency cooperative agreements to resolve complex environmental problems.