Zach Pilchen

Zach Pilchen JD ’13 joined the Biden-Harris administration in October 2022 as senior legal counsel in the Office of General Counsel for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Previously, Pilchen was an associate at Beveridge & Diamond, where he served as deputy chair of the air and climate practice group.  Earlier, he was an attorney-advisor in the EPA’s Office of General Counsel, where he advised EPA policymakers on the development of air pollution and climate change regulations under the Clean Air Act. Pilchen also spent two years detailed to the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, first as a Brookings Institution fellow and later as an executive branch detailee. In the Senate, he advised Democratic policymakers on an array of environmental matters, including bipartisan legislation reforming how the Clean Water Act regulates ballast water discharges and bipartisan legislation phasing down the production and importation of hydrofluorocarbons. Pilchen has received numerous awards for his work, including the EPA’s Gold Medal for Exceptional Service and the U.S. Department of Justice Assistant Attorney General’s Award for Excellence. As a student, Pilchen clerked for or interned with numerous components of the EPA and DOJ, including the EPA Office of Compliance; the EPA Office of Civil Enforcement; the EPA Office of Administrative Law Judges; the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Oregon; and a specialized Clean Air Act litigation group within the DOJ’s Environmental and Natural Resource Division in Washington, DC. Pilchen holds an LLM in energy and environmental law from George Washington University.