Laura T. Rozas has over 25 years legal experience and concentrates on Puerto Rico and federal environmental law and Puerto Rico energy and land use law.
Ms. Rozas has represented and advised clients on permitting and regulatory matters in these areas of law in a wide array of circumstances. Among other things, she has advised clients on environmental, energy and land use issues arising in complex corporate and commercial transactions, including financings, mergers, acquisitions and public-private partnerships; has represented clients in environmental permitting proceedings and administrative enforcement actions before Puerto Rico and federal agencies; and has represented clients in connection with land use permitting and associated administrative and judicial appeals before Puerto Rico agencies and courts, respectively.
Ms. Rozas has provided counseling in these areas in connection with the establishment and ongoing operations of a wide variety of businesses, including industrial, manufacturing, pharmaceutical, telecommunications, maritime transportation, energy generation and various commercial and real estate development enterprises. She has represented clients before the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources (DNER), the Environmental Quality Board (which was consolidated into the DNER in 2018), the Puerto Rico Planning Board, the Puerto Rico Aqueduct and Sewer Authority, the US Army Corps of Engineers, the Environmental Protection Agency, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Marine Fisheries Service and the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico, among others.
Ms. Rozas has also represented clients in various complex or high-profile environmental matters in Puerto Rico. Among other things, she represented the developers of the largest mixed-use redevelopment project approved in Puerto Rico, known as Bahía Urbana (or San Juan Waterfront), in obtaining the environmental and land use approvals. She represented an industrial client in one of the largest environmental administrative enforcement actions brought under Puerto Rico hazardous waste regulations, which was successfully settled. She also represented an industrial client in connection with one of the largest federal Clean Water Act citizen suit actions filed in Puerto Rico and was instrumental in the negotiations of the consent decree with the plaintiffs and the United States Department of Justice.
Ms. Rozas has lectured in seminars sponsored by the Puerto Rico Manufacturers Association, the University of Puerto Rico School of Law, American Water Works Association and International Association of Sanitary Engineering and Environment on various environmental law topics, including subjects related to the Clean Water Act, RCRA, CERCLA, environmental issues in corporate transactions and the Puerto Rico environmental impact review process.
Previously, Ms. Rozas was, at different times, Capital Partner and Special Environmental Counsel at a full-service, San Juan-based firm she joined in 1999 to establish and develop their environmental practice. Ms. Rozas also worked at another Puerto Rican firm where she was non-proprietary Partner.
Ms. Rozas has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Tulane University and a Juris Doctor degree from Georgetown University Law Center. She is admitted to practice before the Puerto Rico Supreme Court and the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.
