Justin A. Savage

Justin Savage is global co-leader of the firm’s Environmental practice and co-leads the Automotive and Mobility sector team. Justin focuses on high-stakes environmental, health, and safety litigation and strategic counseling, including government enforcement actions, internal investigations, and rulemaking challenges. Justin is recognized for “his litigation and trial prowess in major environmental cases” and his “understanding of regulators’ viewpoints” by Chambers USA (2017). Other market recognitions include the National Law Journal’s Energy & Environment Trailblazer (2021) and the Law360 MVP Award (2018), both of which recognized Justin for delivering value to clients in high-stakes matters.

Justin’s clients concentrate in heavily regulated industries, including auto and mobility, energy, refining, chemicals, wood products, and mining. Justin litigates and counsels across the spectrum of U.S. environmental, transportation, and administrative laws, including the Clean Air Act (Title I, mobile sources, and fuels), climate change, incident response, RMP, NHTSA, Clean Water Act, CSB investigations, CERCLA litigation, APA claims, FOIA litigation, NEPA, Clean Water Act, and the Safe Drinking Water Act. 

Prior to joining Sidley, Justin worked as an environmental partner at a large international firm where he earned national recognition for his environmental work and served on the Leadership Team of the Global Auto Sector Group. He served for nearly a decade at the Environmental Enforcement Section of the U.S. Department of Justice, where he led teams in several multi-billion dollar enforcement cases. In his 25-year career, Justin has regularly taught on a range of environmental and litigation topics.

For several years, Justin served as an instructor at the Justice Department’s National Advocacy Center where he taught hundreds of Assistant U.S. Attorneys and other agency lawyers on topics that included trial advocacy, evidence, and the Clean Air Act. Justin regularly serves as a lecturer for the American Law Institute’s Environmental Litigation course and the D.C. Bar’s course on effective advocacy in the rulemaking process.