(T) (202) 789-6041

  fwagner@bdlaw.com
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1350 I Street, N.W.
Suite 700
Washington, DC 20005-3311
Washington

• Complex Project Permitting
• Historical and Archeological Resources
• Land Use and Natural Resources - Environmental
• NEPA and State NEPA - Environmental
• NEPA and State NEPA - Land Use
• Real Estate
• Real Estate Litigation
• Takings Law
• Takings Law - Land Use
• Wetlands - Environmental
• Wetlands - Land Use
• Environmental
• Land Use

• Tufts University (B.A., summa cum laude, 1984)
• Phi Beta Kappa
• University of Virginia School of Law (J.D., 1987)

• Pennsylvania (1987)
• District of Columbia (1988)
• American Bar Association

Mr. Wagner's practice involves counseling and litigation in a wide variety of land use, environmental review and public lands matters, focusing on the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and related federal natural resources statutes.

Before joining Beveridge & Diamond in 1991, Mr. Wagner served for four and one half years as a trial attorney in the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the United States Department of Justice. While at Justice, he litigated matters under NEPA, the National Forest Management Act, the Section 404 Clean Water Act wetlands program, the Endangered Species Act, and the Quiet Title Act. He also handled several cases before the United States Court of Federal Claims, involving alleged takings of private property and inverse condemnation under the Fifth Amendment.

In addition, Mr. Wagner served as a Special Assistant United States Attorney in the Misdemeanor Trial Section of the United States Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia. He tried numerous jury trials and several more bench trials in District of Columbia Superior Court during his tenure at the U.S. Attorney's Office.

While with Beveridge & Diamond, Mr. Wagner has defended private parties and public agencies on their NEPA compliance efforts. He currently serves as Special Counsel to the Ohio and Maryland Departments of Transportation with regard to NEPA compliance and related environmental matters for major transportation projects, and as a Special Assistant Attorney General to the State of North Dakota Water Commission. He has represented Carl M. Freeman Communities regarding a proposed master-planned development in Sussex County, Delaware. He also has represented the D.C. Sports and Entertainment Commission on the development of the downtown arena, the Verizon Center. Mr. Wagner has played a major role in the NEPA and land use compliance of a leading copper mining company and a planned housing developer in the Southwestern United States. He also has been retained by the federal government to assist in the defense of significant development proposals, such as the relocation and consolidation of the Patent and Trademark Office headquarters to Alexandria, Virginia, the Department of Transportation headquarters to Washington, D.C., and the development of new laboratories and offices for the Food and Drug Administration.

Mr. Wagner regularly counsels private developers seeking permits under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act. He recently co-authored a Supreme Court amicus brief on behalf of a coalition of seven major real estate associations in the controversial Rapanos case. Mr. Wagner has spoken to numerous groups concerning the aftermath of the Rapanos ruling on the federal wetlands program. Mr. Wagner also is lead litigation counsel for the City of Alexandria on its major land use and zoning cases. He  represents developers in and around the D.C. metropolitan area seeking entitlements from local planning boards and governing bodies.

Mr. Wagner recently served as co-chair of the D.C. Bar Environment, Energy, and Natural Resources Section. He is a frequent speaker on panels discussing the implementation of NEPA generally, and on public lands and natural resources law.

Mr. Wagner, while attending the University of Virginia School of Law, served as a member and Notes Editor of the Virginia Environmental Law Journal.