Greg has 25 years of environmental experience and returns to Bass, Berry & Sims after leading the Bureau of Environment for the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) for nearly six years. Drawing on this experience, he advises clients on environmental law matters to ensure compliance with regulations at the federal, state and local levels.

While at TDEC, Greg oversaw all aspects of Tennessee’s environmental regulatory and energy policy programs. Notable accomplishments during his tenure include:

• Spearheading historic investment in cleanup and redevelopment activities in Tennessee through development of the TN Clean Program for state superfund sites and the Brownfield Redevelopment Area Grant legislation.
• Leading a new and transformative dialogue with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which resulted in nation-leading cleanup of Manhattan Project era contamination at DOE’s Oak Ridge Reservation.
• Facilitating the redevelopment of former Department of Defense (DOD) sites in Tennessee with the Department of the Army and local industrial development entities.
• Leveraging the Oak Ridge cleanup work to support the state’s nuclear industry development, including through the Tennessee Nuclear Energy Advisory Council.
• Recruiting and supporting major economic development projects across the state, including the largest investments in Tennessee history.
• Creating new pilot frameworks for water reuse, nutrient reduction, and watershed-based withdrawal permitting that were the basis of an Executive Order relating to water conservation across the state.

Utilizing this public service experience alongside his prior private legal practice, Greg serves clients in the following areas:

• Environmental – Representing various entities in all manner of environmental regulatory issues that involve various actions such as permitting, rulemaking, compliance and enforcement, administrative agency negotiations, and contested case proceedings or litigation. Greg also provides counsel regarding environmental aspects of economic development, real estate and corporate transactions.
• Federal Facilities – Partnering with entities in deploying a regulatory dialogue initiative to overcome complex legal, political, technical, and other obstacles encountered in cleanup and redevelopment of former DOE and DOD facilities across the nation.
• Public Policy – Advocating on behalf of clients before federal, state and local governmental entities through negotiations, advisory committees, stakeholder engagement groups, rulemaking, guidance, and/or policy documentation to address broader public policy concerns.
• Conservation – As an avid outdoorsman, Greg values and enjoys handling matters with a conservation component. This experience includes the largest land donation to a non-profit in Tennessee from a manufacturing client and a host of different conservation easements. Greg also works on stream and wetland mitigation projects, carbon credit / sequestration deals, and ecosystem services matters.