Lea A. Phillips

Lea leads Ballard Spahr’s Environment and Natural Resources Group and administers its practice nationwide. Her environmental law practice serves clients in the energy, manufacturing, and waste and recycling industries, with particular experience involving battery energy storage systems and data centers. She advises on project development and financing, obtains environmental and land use permits, and defends those permits against challenges.

Lea also counsels clients on compliance with changing federal and state environmental regulations and on the redevelopment of contaminated properties. In business and real estate transactions, she addresses environmental risks and liabilities. Her work extends to Native American Indian law and natural and cultural resource matters, including open space and trails, endangered and protected species and plants, tribal resources, and projects on state, tribal, and federal lands.

• Regularly represents developers in siting, permitting, building, and financing utility scale conventional and renewable energy power plants, battery energy storage systems (BESS), and data centers across the country. Her experience includes:
  • Real estate and environmental counsel in connection with purchase or lease of project land, including, but not limited to, federal lands, state lands, and tribal lands
  • Providing comprehensive analysis of all permits necessary for a proposed project, including land use entitlements, environmental permits, and local building permits
  • Developing strategy to address opposition from stakeholders
  • Negotiating creative and cost-effective solutions to development challenges, including, cultural resource and open space concerns, road dedications, building permit requirements, fire safety, water usage, tribal resources, among others

• Representing clients in obtaining land use entitlements, including, but not limited to:
  • Comprehensive and General Plan Amendments
  • Zone Changes/Rezones
  • Conditional Use Permits and Special Use Permits
  • Planned Area Development Overlays
• Representing developers in financing and tax equity investment transactions, including preparation of legal opinions and negotiating real estate, environmental, and land use/permitting provisions of financing documents, as well as general due diligence support. 
• Provided counsel to regional petroleum marketer in issues associated with obtaining renewal of air quality permit
• Represented a national waste disposal company in drafting and implementing an internal environmental due diligence policy

• Arizona State University, Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law (J.D., magna cum laude, with Law Science and Technology Certificate)
  Associate Editor, Arizona State Law Journal
  Order of the Coif
  Recipient, Merit Scholarship
  Recipient, Willard H. Pedrick Scholar Award for academic achievement
  Recipient, Highest Pro Bono Distinction
• Arizona State University, Barrett, The Honors College (B.A., magna cum laude)

• Arizona
• U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona

• Chambers USA, "Up and Coming," Environment (Arizona), 2023, 2024; Band 3, 2025, 2026
• The Best Lawyers in America, Environmental Law (Phoenix), 2025-2027
• The Best Lawyers in America, "Ones to Watch," – Environmental Law (Phoenix), 2021-2024
• Benchmark Litigation, "40 & Under List," - Environmental (West), 2022-2026
• Legal 500, Finance - Project Finance: Energy and Power, 2025; Infrastructure and PPP, 2025; Energy - Renewable/Alternative, 2026
• Phoenix Magazine, “Top Lawyer” for Environmental and Land Use Law, 2022
• Phoenix Business Journal, "40 under 40," 2020
• Barrett Alumni Service Award, Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University, 2019 
• Finalist, ATHENA Young Professional Award, Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce, 2015

• Co-author, "Brownfield Qualification for the Energy Community Tax Credit," The Legal Intelligencer, July 23, 2024
• Co-author, "New 'Forever Chemical' Rules to Hit Renewable Energy Companies," Bloomberg Law, July 17, 2024
• Co-author, "Regulation of Non-Hazardous Waste under RCRA," Chapter 15, The RCRA Practice Manual, Third Edition, ABA Section of Envt., Energy, & Resources, American Bar Association, Chicago, 2013