Staff Reports | Business & Commerce
Environmental, natural resources, and energy attorney Michelle De Blasi is marking a major milestone by celebrating her firm’s fifth anniversary, while also celebrating a series of prestigious achievements and industry recognitions that underscore her impact and expertise.
The Law Office of Michelle De Blasi was founded on May 1, 2020.
Ms. De Blasi focuses on business strategy by helping clients in a broad array of industries complete their projects from start to finish, overseeing all aspects of permitting, while assessing business risks and hitting milestones on time and on budget.
Ms. De Blasi possesses decades of experience assisting clients with obtaining successful results with their environmental, natural resource, and energy projects. She has led numerous large-scale, complex environmental remediation enforcement and brownfield cases, and has completed environmental compliance, due diligence and permitting for some of the largest industrial facilities under development in the Valley.
Ms. De Blasi holds a strong belief that success is best measured by making a positive difference in the lives of others. She is proud of the legacy she is building in partnership with Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law Mentorship Initiative for Sustainability Law (MISL).
This year the program celebrated its 10th anniversary of linking experienced attorneys with law students studying within the Program on Law and Sustainability. As a mentor to the next generation of women attorneys, De Blasi advises students and young attorneys on how to find their purpose and passion in the practice of law.
“The MISL program was created to offer opportunities for lawyers to provide one-on-one professional guidance and to share practical knowledge and skills with second- and third-year law students, which offers career advice and opens doors to a professional network,” De Blasi said. “I’m very grateful and honored to have helped grow the MISL program to assist a decade of students in finding their footing in the competitive fields of environmental, energy and water law, and to see some of those former mentees pay it forward by becoming mentors.”
“Michelle has been a vital part of ASU’s MISL program since its inception more than a decade ago,” said Professor Troy Rule, the Joseph Feller Memorial Chair in Law and Sustainability and Faculty Director of the Law and Sustainability Program at ASU Law.
“The program could never have involved so many attorneys and served so many law students without her. Dozens of young environmental and energy lawyers across the Valley have benefited from Michelle’s leadership and generosity.”
Recognizing a need to support women entering the legal industry, De Blasi established The Women’s Professional Power Scholarship at ASU’s law school in 2021.
“The scholarship endowment is awarded each year for 5 years to provide need-based educational scholarship funds to women law students entering the legal field,” De Blasi said. “The scholarship is one additional opportunity where I can support women entering the legal industry.”
When she launched her firm five years ago, De Blasi already had a successful practice built on her decades of experience and relationships assisting clients obtain successful results with their environmental, natural resource, and energy projects. She brought many years of government and “Big Law” experience to her own firm to provide more effective client service at a lower cost.
“The legal market continues to change, and I’m fortunate to be able to provide my clients, who have some of the world’s most complex environmental and energy matters, with more efficient and focused legal services and strategic partnerships,” she said. “My practice has also been strengthened by the ability to partner with many different law firms of all sizes who do not have counsel with my areas of expertise.”
