Home » Speaker Profile – Bobbie James

Speaker Profile – Bobbie James

Bobbie James

Senior Policy Advisor

Maryland Department of the Environment

Biography

Ms. James has been with the Office of the Secretary at MDE as a Senior Policy Advisor since
May 2020. Prior to joining the OS, Ms. James represented MDE for 14 years as an Assistant
Attorney General for the Air and Radiation Administration (ARA), and Deputy Counsel for both
ARA and the Land and Material Administration. In the OS, Ms. James still works closely with
ARA staff on projects such as the collective effort of states to provide a pathway for
electrification of trucks and buses, adopting regulations to address vehicle emissions controls
tampering, and commenting on federal regulation. In addition, Ms. James provides advice to the
MDE Secretaries on matters such as the Conowingo Dam relicensing, responses to citizen suits,
and proposed legislation. Prior to working for the State of Maryland, Ms. James was an
Associate in the Washington DC office of the top 25 law firm PaulHastings. Ms. James has an
LL.M. in Environmental Law from The George Washington University School of Law, a J.D.
from New England Law|Boston, and a B.A. in Political Science from San Francisco State
University. In addition, Ms. James authored a law review article entitled Oil and the
Environment: Reducing Oil Dependency in the Automotive Sector, 15 U. Balt. J. Envtl. L. 1
(2007), was a contributing author for the ABA Section of Environment, Energy, & Resources,
Year in Review Environmental Transactions and Brownfields, Part IV Institutional Controls
(2003), and served as an Editor-in-Chief of New England Law|Boston’s Environmental Law
Forum (1994-95).