Preti Flaherty is proud to announce David Van Slyke, the firm’s Managing Partner, has been elected to the Board of Regents of the American College of Environmental Lawyers (ACOEL). He is the only environmental lawyer in New England elected as an ACOEL Regent for 2023-24.

ACOEL is a professional association of distinguished lawyers who practice in the field of environmental law. ACOEL Fellows are dedicated to maintaining and improving the ethical practice of environmental law, the administration of justice, and the development of environmental law at both the state and federal level.

Preti Flaherty has three active ACOEL Fellows, making it one of only a few law firms in the United States with three members of the College. Van Slyke is joined in ACOEL by another Preti environmental lawyer Jeffrey Thaler, who is a former President of ACOEL.

“I’m honored to be elected by my peers to the Board of Regents and to be part of such an exceptional group of environmental lawyers. I’m also incredibly proud that Preti Flaherty has three ACOEL members on our team. It’s a unique distinction, and it reflects the caliber of the environmental law group we’ve built right here in New England,” said David Van Slyke.

Van Slyke is a nationally recognized environmental lawyer with a distinguished career at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in Washington, D.C. He joined Preti Flaherty in 1991 and served as Chair of the firm’s Environmental Practice Group from 1995-2020 before being elected Managing Partner. He is an active participant in all aspects of the firm's environmental practice, including litigation, compliance counseling, liability allocations, environmental audits, defense of enforcement actions, project permitting, due diligence in business and lending transactions, and environmental risk management.