The outgoing head of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection is joining Foley & Lardner—one of several firms that the state agreed to pay millions of dollars to help with high-stakes litigation over water rights. The move comes just two months after Foley was also granted a state contract worth $96,000 to handle more than $3 billion Florida received as a result of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil disaster.
Jon Steverson, who has led the state’s DEP for the past two years, announced his resignation last week amid controversy surrounding his management of a contract for outside legal counsel that had mushroomed by more than $54.4 million in the past two years for work related to a water war between Florida and Georgia. Foley is the second-highest paid of the four law firms hired to handle the case for Florida.
