J. Michael Showalter

Partner

J. Michael Showalter helps clients navigate bet-the-company disputes and regulatory challenges by identifying emerging risks early and building strategies that work in court, before regulators, and in the political arena.

J. Michael Showalter Portrait

A partner in both the Complex Litigation and Environmental practices, Mike represents clients in federal and state courts nationwide and maintains a substantial appellate practice. His experience spans trial courts, administrative proceedings, and federal courts of appeals, including the D.C., Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Circuits. He regularly handles matters involving environmental regulation, infrastructure permitting, constitutional and administrative law, government investigations, commercial disputes, and enforcement actions.

Mike’s practice is particularly focused on industries where regulatory, political, and community pressures have significant business consequences, including energy, manufacturing, transportation, digital infrastructure, natural resources, and real estate development. He frequently advises clients on matters involving environmental permitting, regulatory change, stakeholder-driven challenges, emerging compliance obligations, and disputes that arise when major projects become focal points for broader political or policy conflicts.

Known for translating complex legal and technical issues into practical business advice, Mike helps executives, boards, and project sponsors evaluate not only legal exposure, but also the broader risks that can affect project execution, investment decisions, and enterprise value. His approach integrates litigation strategy, regulatory analysis, expert evidence, and business considerations to position clients for durable outcomes in high-risk environments.

In addition to his commercial and regulatory work, Mike maintains an active appellate and public-law practice. He has represented clients and amici in significant constitutional, administrative, civil-rights, voting-rights, child-welfare, healthcare, and immigration matters in federal courts across the country.

Experience

Mike focuses on identifying and deploying effective solutions to clients’ legal and business challenges and regulatory risk. Mike regularly counsels corporate boards, executives, and non-governmental organizations on legal and reputational risk. He brings a practical, business-focused perspective to complex issues, advising on risk allocation, disclosure considerations, and long-term strategy. His ability to distill complex legal and technical issues into clear, actionable guidance allows him to effectively support decision-makers operating in high-risk, highly regulated environments. Key focuses:

Corporate Risk Management & Regulatory Litigation: Represents clients in litigation and enforcement actions under the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, CERCLA, the Toxic Substances Control Act, and other federal and state statutes. His work includes citizen suits, agency enforcement actions, and regulatory challenges in federal courts nationwide. Mike also handles appellate litigation involving administrative, statutory, and constitutional issues.

Superfund & Remediation Strategy: Leads complex Superfund and remediation matters, including multi-party cost recovery and allocation disputes involving legacy industrial contamination and manufactured gas plant (MGP) sites. These matters often require coordination of litigation strategy with regulatory oversight, consent decrees, and negotiations with federal and state agencies.

Sustainability, ESG, & Emerging Contaminants: Counsels companies and boards on emerging litigation and regulatory risks related to PFAS, chemical regulation, carbon capture, ESG frameworks, and climate-related exposure, including the intersection of enforcement actions, private litigation, and evolving policy priorities.

Business & Commercial Litigation: Represents clients in complex commercial disputes, including contract litigation in the energy, manufacturing, and renewable energy sectors, insurance coverage and indemnification matters, data privacy and class action defense, and intellectual property disputes. His experience spans multiple industries and jurisdictions, allowing him to manage litigation risk across varied business contexts.

Infrastructure Development & Permitting: Advises clients on permitting and approvals for major infrastructure projects, including manufacturing, energy, and transmission assets, and defends those approvals in litigation involving environmental, administrative, and public policy challenges. His work frequently involves disputes where permitting processes become focal points for broader stakeholder or political conflicts.

Public Law & Constitutional Litigation: Mike maintains an active public law practice, representing clients in constitutional, civil rights, and immigration matters. His experience includes voting rights litigation, First Amendment disputes, federal appellate advocacy, and multi-jurisdictional habeas proceedings challenging detention practices.

Representative Matters

  • Represented parties in U.S. Supreme Court litigation involving constitutional and regulatory challenges, including First Amendment issues.
  • Handled federal appellate challenges to EPA actions in the D.C. Circuit and other courts of appeals involving complex administrative law questions.
  • Represented energy and utility clients in Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act litigation, including citizen suits and enforcement actions nationwide.
  • Litigating nationally significant CERCLA cleanup matter filed on behalf of a major utility involving a prominent urban waterway. Also litigates additional CERCLA cost recovery and allocation disputes involving legacy industrial and MGP sites across multiple jurisdictions.
  • Litigated constitutional and civil rights matters in federal courts, including voting rights and public policy challenges.
  • Represented clients in complex insurance coverage and indemnification disputes arising from environmental and commercial liabilities
  • Represents solar energy developers and project companies in commercial disputes arising from utility-scale solar installations.
  • Filed and litigated multiple habeas corpus petitions on a pro bono basis on behalf of ICE detainees in federal courts across the Midwest, challenging mandatory detention under Section 1225(b)(2)(A) and parole revocation practices, including obtaining a federal court order requiring the government to provide bond hearings to detained individuals.
  • Defending a leading commercial equipment manufacturer in a consolidated class action involving data privacy claims in federal court.

Commitment to Pro Bono Service

Mike is deeply committed to pro bono work, particularly matters of significant public interest and civil rights. Mike’s pro bono work uses the same creative toolkit he uses for corporate clients in the public sphere.

Mike’s significant pro bono engagements include

Protecting Constitutional Rights: Serving as trial and appellate counsel in a civil rights case that challenged restrictive voting laws. Mike also secured the First Amendment rights of non-religious individuals to perform marriages in Illinois and Michigan through federal litigation.

Influencing High-Stakes Litigation: Filing amicus briefs in the Fourth and Seventh Circuits over a five-year period on behalf of national children’s rights, health, and disability rights organizations in institutional reform litigation challenging systemic failures in state foster care systems — including the overuse of congregate care, barriers to kinship placement, and procedural rules that deny foster children access to federal courts. This sustained appellate advocacy contributed to the reversal of lower court decisions that had barred institutional reform litigation in West Virginia and other states. Mike also filed an amicus brief at the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of a U.S. Senator regarding state laws that limit content moderation on internet platforms.

Driving Legislative Change: Challenging Michigan’s assessment of state sales and use taxes on feminine hygiene products. This litigation ultimately led to the Michigan legislature repealing the tax.

Advocating for the Vulnerable: Representing classes of foster children in litigation against the Illinois Department of Children & Family Services and the State of Illinois on issues ranging from child welfare to securing the ability of same-sex couples to become foster parents. Mike has also challenged religious discrimination and unconstitutional conditions of confinement on behalf of incarcerated persons. In 2026, Mike spearheaded a multi-jurisdictional pro bono effort representing individuals detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in habeas corpus proceedings, securing bond hearings and challenging the constitutionality of mandatory detention and parole revocation practices under the Immigration and Nationality Act.

Blending Litigation with Public Advocacy: After securing a judgment against a con artist who defrauded flea market vendors in multiple states, Mike coordinated with law enforcement and the media to ensure public awareness. This approach led to the con artist’s eventual incarceration for unrelated crimes, effectively ending his multi-state spree of preying on immigrant communities.

Boards, Memberships & Certifications

  • American Bar Association
  • International Bar Association, Environment, Health and Safety Law Committee, Membership Officer (2025-present); Programme Officer (2023-2025)
  • The Sedona Conference
    • Working Group 1, Member
    • Brainstorming Group on Proportionality in Discovery and Drafting Team regarding the Use of Technology Assisted Review in Litigation, Member
  • Law360 Editorial Advisory Board, Energy (2026)

Publications, Presentations & Recognitions

Publications

  • “Perspective 2025: Disruption and Consistency in Environmental Law,” (author) Air & Waste Management Association EM Plus Fourth Quarter 2025 Report (2025)
  • “The End of the Beginning of the Environmental Justice Era?” (co-author) The Magazine for Environmental Managers (2025)
  • “Warehouse and Logistics Operations Targeted by Regulatory Push for ‘Indirect Source Rules’ Targeting Vehicle Emissions,” (co-author) Pratt’s Energy Law Report, Vol. 24-6 (2024)
  • Primer on Crafting eDiscovery Requests with “Reasonable Particularity, (co-author) The Sedona Conference (2022)
  • “Going Beyond: When Can Courts Look Past the Record in an APA Review?” Georgetown Environmental Law Review, Aug. 15, 2019
  • “Discovery in the Modern Age,” From the Trenches III: Pretrial Strategies for Success, American Bar Association (2018)
  • “Punitive Damages,” in Business Torts and Unfair Competition Handbook, American Bar Association Section of Antitrust Law (2014)
  • Scientific Evidence in the Fourth Circuit, in Cynthia H. Cwik et al. (eds.), Scientific Evidence Review: Admissibility of Expert Evidence, Monograph No. 9, American Bar Association Section of Technology & Law (2013)
  • Scientific Evidence in the Fourth Circuit, in Cynthia H. Cwik et al. (eds.), Scientific Evidence Review: Admissibility of Expert Evidence, Monograph No. 8, American Bar Association Section of Technology & Law (2008)

Presentations

  • “EPA’s ‘Compliance First’ and LEAPS-Based Enforcement: Opportunities and Risks”, Washington Legal Foundation Webinar (April 21, 2026)
  • “Responsible Mining” International Bar Association’s “ESG in Evolution” Conference (March 27, 2026) 
  • “The eradication of extreme poverty and hunger: the challenge for the global legal profession and every practicing lawyer”, IBA Annual Conference Toronto 2025 (Nov. 5, 2025)
  • “Cross-sectoral approaches to poverty eradication: law, environmental sustainability and gender”, IBA Conference (May 16, 2025)
  • “Permits and Policies: Waste Storage and Environmental Justice Considerations,” ABA SEER Section, Webinar (Apr. 23, 2025)
  • “Environmental Citizen-Suit Landscape: How Legal and Political Shifts Heighten Risk for Business,” Washington Legal Foundation (Dec. 12, 2024)
  • “Industry Perspectives on Environmental Justice,” Environmental Justice: Policy, Practice, and Progress Conference, Air & Waste Management Association (Dec. 4, 2024)
  • “Defending Against Citizen Suits,” Strafford Webinar (Oct. 3, 2024)
  • Illinois Environmental Resource Group, Title V Seminar – presentation on environmental justice (EJ) issues, Springfield, IL, (Oct. 3, 2024)
  • “How to Navigate Environmental Justice Requirements in Permitting Procedures,” (Webinar) Illinois Environmental Regulatory Group (Jan. 24, 2024)
  • “Climate Pro Bono Bootcamp,” hosted by Green Pro Bono, the planetary lawyer project and Offit Kurman (Jan. 17-18, 2024)
  • “Epa – Full Throttle in 2024. What to Expect in 2024 from The Biden/Regan Epa,” The Regulatory Environmental Group for Missouri (REGFORM) (Dec. 5, 2023)
  • “Opportunities and Challenges in the New Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Frontier: From Theory to Practice,” ISBA Environmental Law Section’s 21st Annual Environmental Law Conference (May 11, 2023)
  • “Fast and Furious EPA: Five Critical Issues Facing Regulated Facilities in 2023,” The Regulatory Environmental Group for Missouri (REGFORM), Conference (Apr. 20, 2023)
  • “ESG: The Role of Lawyers Today and in the Future: What could possibly go wrong? ESG-related disputes: litigation and enforcement,” North American Regional Forum and the Energy, Environment, Natural Resources and Infrastructure Law Section, Conference (Feb. 28, 2023)
  • “Understanding Environmental Justice: Guidance for Regulated Facilities,” The Regulatory Environmental Group for Missouri (REGFORM) (Dec. 6, 2022)
  • “Defending Against Citizen Suits Under Environmental Laws: Notice, Standing, Jurisdiction, Settlements, and More Under RCRA, CERCLA, CWA, and CAA,” Strafford, Webinar (Oct. 4, 2022)
  • “Environmental and Energy Law Policy: A Trump vs. Biden Administration,” (speaker) The Chicago Bar Association, Young Lawyers Section, Environmental Law Committee (Oct. 6, 2020)
  • “COVID-19 Legal Issues Spotting for In-House Counsel,” Webinar (Apr. 1, 2020)
  • “Views on Trump Administration Environmental Policy Updates,” Chicago Bar Association, Young Lawyers Section, Chicago, Ill. (Feb. 21, 2018)
  • “Citizen Suits and Community Complaints (Odors),” 2017 Air Quality Management Conference, Oakbrook Terrace, Ill. (Oct. 17, 2017)
  • “Citizen Enforcement of the CCR Rule: How Will Enforcement Actions Be Brought, and What Can You Do to Prepare for Them,” (co-presenter) 2017 World of Coal Ash Conference Short Course, Lexington, Ky. (May 8, 2017)
  • “Ban Asbestos Legislation, Regulation, and Asbestos Litigation,” Defense Research Institute Seminar on Asbestos Medicine, San Diego, California (2010)

Recognitions

  • Emerging Lawyer, Law Bulletin Publishing Company’s Leading Lawyers (2015-2018)
  • Illinois Emerging Lawyer, Law Bulletin’s Illinois Leading Lawyers Network (2015)

Thought Leadership & Client Insights

Mike’s articles and commentary regularly appear in publications including The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg Law, and Law360. He frequently speaks on environmental and administrative law, ESG and sustainability, and regulatory developments affecting the energy and infrastructure sectors.

Previous Experience

Before entering private practice, Mike clerked for then U.S. Magistrate Judge (later Chief District Judge) Michael F. Urbanski of the Western District of Virginia and Chief District Judge David A. Faber of the Southern District of West Virginia.

Insights

Awards

JD Supra Readers Choice Top Author 2025 JD Supra Readers Choice Top Author 2024 JD Supra Readers Choice Top Author 2023