Ross A. Hammersley

Ross is a Principal Attorney with the firm, specializing in environmental, real estate, and municipal law.  He enjoys assisting clients with land use & zoning matters; natural resource conservation; wetlands regulations; water law & riparian disputes; municipal law & local governmental matters; real estate and corporate transactions; condominium associations; nonprofit organizations; energy policy and utilities regulations; oil & gas leasing, extraction, and transmission issues; and the rehabilitation of contaminated Brownfield properties. Ross' practice involves litigation, appeals, and administrative hearings throughout the state, as well as mediation, negotiations, and transactional matters.

Ross is a Council Member of the State Bar of Michigan's Environmental Law Section, and is the Vice-Chair of the Section’s Great Lakes & Inland Waters Committee.  He also volunteers with the local legal aid clinic, and is a member of the Board of Directors of two local entities: Traverse City Light and Power, which is Traverse City's municipal utility, and TART Trails, an organization promoting recreation and alternative transportation in northwest Michigan. 

During law school, Ross was the Editor-in-Chief of the Michigan State Law Review, worked as an intern with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, and took part in the Mexican Legal Studies program (in Guadalajara, MX), studying the comparative law of indigenous peoples throughout the Americas, NAFTA, and international environmental issues.  Before law school Ross worked on habitat restoration with the Audubon Society in southern California, advocated and organized political campaigns for clean energy legislation and wilderness protection in California, and was a teacher in environmental education programs in Michigan and Vermont.  When he's not at the office, you can usually find Ross playing/coaching soccer, riding bikes, fly-fishing, or hiking somewhere in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore with his family.

 Education:

• Bachelor of Science (1998) – University of Michigan’s School of Natural Resources & the Environment
• Juris Doctor, cum laude (2006) – Michigan State University College of Law

 Publications & Presentations:

•  Local Government Regulation of Large-Scale Hydraulic Fracturing Activities and Uses, Michigan Bar Journal (June 2014); co-authored with Kate Redman.
• Overview of the 2013 Amendments to Michigan's Wetlands Protection Program, Webinar Presentation to the State Bar of Michigan Environmental Law Section (August 2013).
• Overview of the Proposal for Radioactive Waste Storage on the Bruce Peninsula, Presentation to the Annual Meeting of the State Bar of Michigan Environmental Law Section (September 2013).
• Going Local: How the Property Assessed Clean Energy Act & Feed-In-Tariffs Could Decentralize Michigan’s Energy Grid, Michigan Environmental Law Journal (2011); co-authored with Kaitlyn Sundt.
• Report to the International Joint Commission on the Principles of the Public Trust Doctrine (November 2011); co-authored with Jim Olson, William Rastetter, Jeff Jocks, and Kate Redman.
• Tiger Conservation in a “Globalized” World: Tying Humans, Forests, and Tigers Together, MSU Animal Legal & Historical Center (2006).

Admissions:

• State Bar of Michigan
• United States District Courts (Eastern & Western Districts of Michigan)
• United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit