Richard J. Lewandowski

Class of 1975: Environmental attorney

With an eye on the environment and repeated honors from his peers as a top-rated attorney, Richard J. Lewandowski has been practicing law in Madison, Wisconsin, for more than 40 years.

He was born in September 1953 in Menasha, Wisconsin. At Ripon, he majored in politics and government and economics and participated in Sigma Chi.

During law school, he did not do a traditional law firm clerkship but instead worked as a legislative assistant for the Wisconsin State Senate in 1976-1978, and as a Congressional intern for Rep. Les Aspin at the United States House of Representatives in 1977. Aspin later chaired the House Armed Services Committee and served as President Bill Clinton’s Secretary of Defense.

Lewandowski earned his Juris Doctor from the University of Wisconsin Law School in 1978 and was admitted to the Wisconsin bar that same year.

“Lawyers are heavily focused on the court system, but my background showed me that there are three branches of government, and sometimes a client’s problems are better addressed before the administrative branch or even in the Legislature.”

Lewandowski is a senior counsel in the Madison office of the Husch Blackwell LLP law firm. He specializes in environmental law and represents clients with issues in environmental, business and administrative law.

With experience in aligning the clean water laws of Wisconsin with Environmental Protection Agency guidelines, he works compliance issues regarding surface and groundwater or remediation of contaminated properties. He has handled cases dealing with water permitting, solid and hazardous waste regulation, the cleanup of historic contamination sites, groundwater protection, pesticide regulation, and wetlands.

He also has represented Tibetan refuges in asylum proceedings for the National Immigrant Justice Center, and successfully defended a rural county in Wisconsin in a Superfund contribution action.

He has been honored as a Leader in the Law by the Wisconsin Law Journal in 2009; Wisconsin Super Lawyers in environmental litigation in 2009-2012 and 2015-2019, a peer-selected honor; and The Best Lawyers in America in environmental law, litigation-environmental, 2009-2023; Litigation-Environmental Lawyer of the Year in 2016; and Environmental Law Lawyer of the Year in 2022.

Ripon College presented him with its Distinguished Alumni Citation in 2010. He served on the College’s Alumni Board, including a term as president, and was one of the Board’s three representatives to the Board of Trustees.

“Ripon emphasizes original research and writing for both classroom assignments and tests,” Lewandowski said. “It is small enough that students get attention from Ph.D. professors in small classes. They know their students. The big state universities often have hundreds of students in large lectures, with Teaching Assistants (graduate students) handling smaller discussion groups.

“Ripon and smaller colleges have a distinct advantage. Politics and Government with a second major in Economics was extremely helpful in practice, because most legal problems have a financial component, whether the parties negotiate a settlement or the matter is decided in the courts.”