Rachel Levick is a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.  She practices in the firm’s Litigation Department and is a member of the Environmental Litigation and Mass Tort and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Practice Groups.  Ms. Levick has represented clients in a wide range of federal and state litigation, agency enforcement actions, cost recovery cases, and administrative rulemaking challenges.  She was named by Best Lawyers as “One to Watch” in Environmental Litigation for 2022 and 2023.

Representative engagements include:

• Representing Daimler AG and Mercedes-Benz USA, LLC in investigation and civil enforcement action regarding compliance with Clean Air Act requirements governing emissions controls and in related settlement of civil claims with the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the California Attorney General, the California Air Resources Board, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.  United States v. Daimler AG, No. 20-2564 (D.D.C.).
• Representing a coalition of major automotive manufacturers as intervenors in several consolidated challenges to NHTSA’s September 2019 rulemaking finding that state greenhouse gas emissions regulations are preempted by federal law, and to EPA’s parallel rulemaking revoking California’s Clean Air Act preemption waiver. Union of Concerned Scientists v. NHTSA, No. 19-1230 (D.C. Cir.); California v. Chao, No. 19-2826 (D.D.C.).
• Successfully representing the Association of Global Automakers as intervenors in obtaining dismissal by the D.C. Circuit of consolidated challenges to the EPA’s withdrawal of a prior agency determination regarding light-duty vehicle greenhouse gas emission standards. California v. EPA, 940 F.3d 1342 (D.C. Cir. 2019).
• Prosecuting CERCLA cost recovery action on behalf of Electric Boat Corporation against the United States at former Naval Aircraft Station in Rhode Island, resulting in a settlement providing for a 75% cost allocation to the United States for all past and future costs at the site. Electric Boat Corp. v. United States, No. 15-461 (D.R.I. May 31, 2018).
• Defending major Fortune 500 biomedical manufacturing company in state enforcement action concerning multimillion dollar remediation of groundwater contamination.
• Defending Beckman Coulter, Inc. as third-party defendant in CERCLA cost recovery action brought by the United States. United States v. Puerto Rico Indus. Dev. Co., No. 15-2328 (D.P.R.).
• Prosecuting a $250 million CERCLA cost recovery action against the United States, resulting in a significant recovery after a multi-week bench trial in federal court.  Lockheed Martin Corp. v. United States, 35 F. Supp. 3d 92 (D.D.C. 2014).
• Representing major defense contractor in litigated proceedings before the Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals.

Recent speaking engagements include:

• Webcast, “2023 Environmental Update,” Washington, DC (Feb. 15, 2023).
• Webcast, “2022 Environmental Update,” Washington, DC (Feb. 9, 2022).
• Webinar, “ELI Summer School – Basics of the Clean Air Act,” Washington, DC (July 6, 2021).
• Webcast, “Biden’s EPA: The First 60 Days and Beyond,” Washington, DC (Mar. 23, 2021).

Ms. Levick was an associate at Gibson Dunn from 2013 to 2014.  From 2014 to 2016, she served as a law clerk to the Honorable Amy Berman Jackson of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.  She rejoined the firm in 2016.

Ms. Levick received her law degree cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 2013, where she was a recipient of the Levy Scholarship.  During law school, she served as a Senior Editor of the University of Pennsylvania Law Review and as a Louderback Legal Writing Instructor.  Ms. Levick earned her Bachelor of Arts degree summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania in 2010.

Ms. Levick is admitted to practice law in Maryland and the District of Columbia, and before the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.