LeAnne Burnett serves as a director in the firm’s Oklahoma City office. Her practice concentrates on environmental and regulatory aspects of utility grade renewable energy projects, and on environmental law, regulation and litigation, including guiding clients through the legal and technical issues presented by chemicals alleged to affect human health or the environment, such as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, commonly referred to as PFAS.
In addition to representing individual clients in hazardous waste, solid waste, and multi-media enforcement and permitting proceedings, she has chaired Superfund site PRP committees and served as group counsel to industry groups in environmental litigation. LeAnne sought and received determinations that her client, Madewell & Madewell sold “useful products” and was therefore not liable under CERCLA. See Douglas County, Neb. v. Gould, Inc., 871 F. Supp. 1242 (D.Neb. 1994); RSR Corp. v. Avanti Dev., Inc., 68 F. Supp. 2d 1037, 1045-49 (S.D.Ind.1999); and United States v. Mountain Metal Co., 137 F. Supp. 2d 1267 (N.D. Ala. 2001).
LeAnne has published numerous works related to her field of practice. She served as an editor and co-author for the Oklahoma Environmental Law Handbook published by the Oklahoma Bar Association. In addition, LeAnne has taught many environmental law seminars for the Oklahoma and Arkansas Bar Associations, the Sovereignty Symposium, the Oklahoma Brownfields Conference, the Lex Mundi Environmental Law Section and the Wind Energy class at the University of Oklahoma.
LeAnne is a founding member of the Oklahoma Bar Association’s Environmental Law Section and served as chair of that section. She has also been a member of the Robert J. Turner Inn of Court since 1998 and has served with Oklahoma Lawyers for Children since 2000 as a volunteer, board member and executive board member. For more than a decade, she sat on the Oklahoma County Bar Association’s Fee Grievance and Ethics Committee, most recently serving as committee chair. LeAnne has been listed in Best Lawyers (Energy Law, Environmental Law, Litigation – Environmental and Water Law), named Best Lawyers 2016, 2018 and 2020 Lawyer of the Year for Water Law in Oklahoma City and ranked Band 1 in Chambers USA. In years past, she was named Best Lawyers Lawyer of the Year for Environmental Litigation in Oklahoma City. LeAnne is an elected Fellow of the American College of Environmental Lawyers and the Litigation Counsel of America.*
LeAnne was admitted to practice law in Oklahoma in 1989 after she received her Juris Doctor from the University of Oklahoma College of Law with honors. She is also admitted to practice in Arkansas and Kansas. LeAnne received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Southern Methodist University in 1971.
*Crowe & Dunlevy has no input in the rating methodologies used by Best Lawyers or Chambers USA.
