Buck assists clients from numerous industries navigate regulatory, transactional, and litigation challenges arising in the complex and dynamic environmental law landscape. From identifying environmental issues and crafting unique mitigation strategies to advising clients on enforcement and compliance matters, Buck is results-driven and has a reputation for efficiency, thoroughness, and client care.

Overview
Representative Matters
Insights
Awards

Buck counsels major financial institutions with respect to risk management and mitigation of environmental issues identified in large loan and commercial mortgage portfolios. Buck also helps electric utilities, waste companies, and other industries address the unique environmental challenges they face. His experience spans multiple statutory and regulatory schemes, including RCRA, CERCLA, the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, the Coal Combustion Residuals Rule, and their state counterparts.

As part of a full range of services, Buck:

  • Analyzes potential environmental concerns and develops creative remediation and mitigation strategies during the course of due diligence;
  • Identifies potential compliance issues arising under federal and state environmental laws and crafts solutions to regulatory hurdles;
  • Represents clients during enforcement actions by constructing defenses, appealing decisions, and when necessary, negotiating penalties; and
  • Navigates clients through federal and state rulemaking processes by drafting comments to proposed rules and judicially challenging final rules.

In his pro bono work, Buck has helped young children facing deportation gain asylum.

Before joining the firm, Buck was an analyst for the Georgia House of Representatives Budget and Research Office. There, he specialized in natural resources and environmental policy.

  • Identify environmental risks and craft unique mitigation strategies for financial institutions in connection with securitized and balance sheet lending.
  • Counsel electric utility clients in matters and activities concerning the preparation of state coal combustion residual permits.
  • Represent waste companies in Clean Air Act enforcement actions involving the applicability of the New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) for municipal solid waste landfills.
  • Best Lawyers in America®: Ones to Watch: Environmental Law (2024, 2026)
  • Legal 500 United States for Environment: Transactional (2022, 2024)
  • Named Pro Bono Attorney of the Month by Kids in Need of Defense (KIND)

Buck counsels major financial institutions with respect to risk management and mitigation of environmental issues identified in large loan and commercial mortgage portfolios. Buck also helps electric utilities, waste companies, and other industries address the unique environmental challenges they face. His experience spans multiple statutory and regulatory schemes, including RCRA, CERCLA, the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, the Coal Combustion Residuals Rule, and their state counterparts.

As part of a full range of services, Buck:

  • Analyzes potential environmental concerns and develops creative remediation and mitigation strategies during the course of due diligence;
  • Identifies potential compliance issues arising under federal and state environmental laws and crafts solutions to regulatory hurdles;
  • Represents clients during enforcement actions by constructing defenses, appealing decisions, and when necessary, negotiating penalties; and
  • Navigates clients through federal and state rulemaking processes by drafting comments to proposed rules and judicially challenging final rules.

In his pro bono work, Buck has helped young children facing deportation gain asylum.

Before joining the firm, Buck was an analyst for the Georgia House of Representatives Budget and Research Office. There, he specialized in natural resources and environmental policy.

  • Identify environmental risks and craft unique mitigation strategies for financial institutions in connection with securitized and balance sheet lending.
  • Counsel electric utility clients in matters and activities concerning the preparation of state coal combustion residual permits.
  • Represent waste companies in Clean Air Act enforcement actions involving the applicability of the New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) for municipal solid waste landfills.
  • Best Lawyers in America®: Ones to Watch: Environmental Law (2024, 2026)
  • Legal 500 United States for Environment: Transactional (2022, 2024)
  • Named Pro Bono Attorney of the Month by Kids in Need of Defense (KIND)
  • Member of the State Bar of Georgia Environmental Law Section
  • Member of the Atlanta Kiwanis Club
  • Member of the Zell Miller Foundation Leadership Institute Class of 2019
  • Member of Trinity Presbyterian Church
  • Analyst, Georgia House of Representatives Budget and Research Office, 2011–2014

 

Education

  • Georgia State University College of Law, J.D., cum laude, 2015, editor-in-chief, Georgia State University Law Review (2014–15)
  • University of Georgia, B.A., cum laude, 2010

Bar Admissions

  • Georgia

Court Admissions

  • U.S. Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit
  • Supreme Court of Georgia
  • Court of Appeals of Georgia
  • Superior Court of Fulton County
  • U.S. District Court, Middle District of Georgia
  • U.S. District Court, Northern District of Georgia
  • Speaker, “Freedom to Farm Act: An Overview of Practical Implications,” 2022 Georgia Farm Bureau State Commodity Conference, August 11, 2022.
  • Co-presenter, “Real Estate Transactions in Current Economic Situation,” Lorman Webinar, July 13, 2022.
  • Co-presenter, “Recent Updates and Developments in Legal Ethics Relevant to the Oil and Gas Industry,” AOPL Annual Business Conference, September 2017.
  • Co-author, “New York’s New Spill Reporting Requirements and Potential Ramifications fo Environmental Due Diligence,” Environmental Law in New York, Vol. 35, No. 4, April 2024.
  • Author, “Challenges Continue for Pipeline Construction at the State Level,” Perspectives on Georgia’s Environment, State Bar of Georgia, Environmental Law Section, Summer 2017.
  • Co-author, “Multidistrict Transfer and Consolidation—WOTUS Cases,” Natural Resources & Environment, Vol. 30, No. 4, Spring 2016.
  • Co-author, “Conservation and Natural Resources: Parks, Historic Areas, Memorials, and Recreation,” 31 Ga. St. U. L. Rev. 1 (2014).