Jess represents public and private clients across the country in environmental, energy, and natural resource matters. She chairs Marten Law LLP’s litigation practice, and has taken myriad cases to successful judgments for local government and private clients over the past 20 years. These include multi-million dollar cost recovery actions, pursued to ensure polluters rather than ratepayers pay the costs necessary to clean up drinking water sources contaminated by military and industrial operations. Jess has represented renewable energy developers in ESA, MMPA, APA, and NEPA challenges, and ensured regulatory compliance of developments, water diversion operations, fishing, and other natural resource-dependent activities with federal and state laws.
Outside the courtroom, Jess negotiates settlements in complex multi-party cases and advises clients on regulatory compliance, environmental liabilities in property transactions, and in permitting matters. She is lead counsel for multiple municipalities in the Aqueous Film-Forming Foam Multi-District Litigation in South Carolina federal district court, involving PFAS, as well as in cost recovery and water quality cases involving a range of hazardous substances nationwide.
- Represents multiple cities and water districts in actions against U.S. Department of Defense (“DOD”) and chemical manufacturers for contamination of public water systems by perfluorinated compounds (“PFAS”), including in the Aqueous Film-Forming Foams Products Liability Multi-District Litigation in the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina.
- Represents New Mexico local governments for recovery of costs to remediate municipal water supplies contaminated by private companies and the U.S. military. Successfully negotiated multi-year, multi-million dollar consent decree to remediate public water supply with DOD and EPA.
- Represents Seattle Times in environmental cost recovery litigation in U.S. District Court for the W.D. Washington and the Ninth Circuit, and in insurance coverage litigation.
- Represents partnerships between affordable housing and community advocacy groups and development companies to bring long-term affordable housing to increasingly gentrified urban areas in the Pacific Northwest.
- Advises global apparel, food, and outdoor gear retailers, manufacturers, and distributors on PFAS regulatory compliance.
- Represented fishing companies in support of and challenges to NOAA Fisheries allocations, fishery management regulations, and associated ESA and NEPA decisions for Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Pacific Cod and Atka mackerel fisheries.
- Best Lawyers in America®: Environmental Law, Environmental Litigation, and Natural Resources (2018-present)
- Chambers USA: Washington – Environment (Band 2) (2022-present)
- Lexology Index (formerly Who’s Who Legal): Thought Leader, Environment and Climate Change (2018-present)
- “Super Lawyer” (2021-2024) and Rising Star®, Washington Law & Politics / Super Lawyers Magazine (2015-21)
- Environmental Law Institute Leadership Council (2020-present)
- Lawdragon 500 Leading Environmental & Energy Lawyers (2021-2024)
- Business Today's Top 10 Influential Environmental Lawyers in Washington (2023)
- Pro Bono work representing refugees seeking political asylum and local non-profit organizations (2007-present)
- WSBA Board of Governors Pro Bono Publico Service Recognition (2007-17, 2019-present)
- Editorial Board, WSBA Environmental & Land Use Law Section (2006-2024)
- Speaker, American Water Works Association Annual Conference & Exposition, 2025 Update on PFAS and Multi-District Litigation (June 11, 2025)
- Guest, "Law, disrupted" hosted by John Quinn, Forever Chemicals - Forever Litigation? (June 22, 2023)
- Speaker, Lewis and Clark Law School Environmental, Natural Resources, and Energy Law 2023 Symposium, The Next Five Decades: Conserving Biodiversity on a Changing Planet (April 7, 2023)
- Co-author, "Firefighting and Forever Chemicals: The Environmental Impact of PFAS in Firefighting Foam," with A. Dunn, ABA Natural Resources & Environment Vol. 37, No. 2 (Fall 2022)
- Speaker, Masters of Mass Tort 2022, "Government Entities as Allies in Toxic Torts" (September 13, 2022)
- Speaker, Perrin Conferences, Impact of PFAS on Environmental Litigation (January 13, 2022)
- Author and Speaker, The Seminar Group, Washington Water Code: Law, Policy, and Planning, Remote (Nov. 2020)
- Speaker, LSI, Preparing for the Wave of PFAS Litigation in the Northwest, Remote (September 2020)
- Speaker, LSI, Litigating Environmental Class Actions, Seattle, WA (May 2019)
- Editor and Author, WSBA 2018 Real Property Deskbook ESA, CWA, & NEPA chapters (December 2018)
- Speaker, Sage Grouse & Renewable Energy, Sc’y for Range Mngmnt. 65th Annual Meeting, Central, WA (Feb. 2012)
- Chair, WSBA Environmental, Energy, and Land Use Law Annual Conference, Union, WA (April 2011)
- Speaker, Ethics in Representing Regulated Entities, 28th Annual ABA Water Law Conf., San Diego, CA (Feb. 2010)
- Author, Bounty for Land and Sea: Omnibus Public Lands Act Passed, Envt’l Counselor, No. 251 (July 2009)
- Author, Precautionary Resource Management and Climate Change, ABA NR&E Magazine (Summer 2009)
- Speaker, Sustainable Development & Climate Change, American Planning Association National Conference, Bellevue, WA (2009)
- Speaker & Author, Fish, Goods, and International Law, Amer. Association of Law Schools Annual Conference, NY, NY (Jan. 2008)
- Speaker, Sustainable Project Development & Climate Change, 54th Annual Rocky Mountain Law Institute, Aspen, CO (Dec. 2008)
- Author, Will Saving Puget Sound Orcas and Salmon Save an Ecosystem?, ABA NR&E Magazine (Fall 2007)
- Speaker, Endangered Species and Watershed Planning in Shoreline Development, LSI, Seattle, WA (Feb. 2007)
- Author, Controlling Flags of Convenience to Stop Overfishing of Collapsing Fish Stocks, 35 Envtl. L. 323 (Spr. 2005)
- Author, WSBA Envt’l & Land Use Law Newsletter (2005-17); Marten Law News (environmental and energy law e-newsletter (2006-present); LexisNexis Expert Forum, Envt’l Law & Climate Change (2007-19)
Audits, Risk, and Compliance Assessments
Natural Resources & Endangered Species
- J.D., with honors and Environmental and Natural Resources Law Certificate, Lewis and Clark Law School (2005)
- B.A., with honors, Cornell University, History (1998)
- Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals
- U.S. District Courts, Eastern and Western Districts of Washington
- State Bar of Washington
- State Bar of Texas
- U.S. District Court, N.D. Texas
