Ignacia S. Moreno is the Chief Executive Officer and a founding Principal of The iMoreno Group, PLC, a majority minority-owned and majority woman-owned law firm that provides legal services and strategic counseling on environmental and natural resources, corporate, criminal defense, and immigration matters. Ms. Moreno is recognized as one of the nation’s leading environmental and natural resources lawyers. During her over 33-year career, she has served as the top environmental lawyer at the U.S. Department of Justice, been corporate environmental counsel at a Fortune 10 company, and practiced environmental law and litigation at prominent national law firms, including as a partner.
In 2009, President Obama nominated Ms. Moreno to serve as Assistant Attorney General of the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (Division). The U.S. Senate unanimously confirmed her in a 93 to 0 vote and she served as head of the Division from 2009 to 2013. During her tenure she managed the budget and operations of a 650-person (430-lawyer) litigation division ranked as one of the top five “Best Places to Work in the Federal Government.” Ms. Moreno advised the Attorney General, Cabinet members, agency general counsel, and other high-level officials on litigation strategy, enforcement policy, legislative proposals and administration initiatives, and conducted high-level interagency processes. She also oversaw a nationwide docket of thousands of civil, criminal, defensive, and appellate cases and policy matters on behalf of numerous executive branch agencies. Ms. Moreno was recognized for her outstanding service in leading the Division’s response to the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, obtaining unprecedented enforcement results, defending government actions to address climate change, negotiating historic tribal trust settlements, and integrating environmental justice principles into the Division’s work.
Before her appointment as Assistant Attorney General, Ms. Moreno was Counsel for the
Northeast/Midwest Regions and International, Corporate Environmental Programs, at the General Electric Company. At GE, she provided advice and counsel to multiple GE businesses on a wide range of environmental matters under federal and state laws in connection with sites in a twelve-state region and abroad, and managed complex environmental litigation. Previously, Ms. Moreno was in private practice at two Washington, D.C. law firms. She also served at the U.S. Department of Justice in the Environment and Natural Resources Division for seven years during the Clinton Administration.
Ms. Moreno has significant experience serving on regulatory, university, think tank, and non-profit boards. She was appointed by Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe to serve a four-year term on the State Air Pollution Control Board and was elected Chair of the Board. Ms. Moreno was appointed by Virginia Governor Ralph Northam to a four-year term on the Board of Visitors of George Mason University, Virginia’s largest public university, where she was elected to the Executive Committee and as Vice Chair of the Audit, Risk, and Compliance Committee, and served as a member of the Finance and Land Use Committee. She serves on the National Board of Directors of the Trust for Public Land, where she has been elected to serve on the Executive Committee and Transactions Committee and serves as Chair of the Advocacy Committee. Ms. Moreno also serves on the advisory boards of the Yale Center for Environmental Justice, the Smithsonian-Mason School of Conservation, and the New York University School of Law Institute for Policy Integrity. In addition, she has served as President and member of the
Board of Directors of the Hispanic Bar Association of the District of Columbia (HBA-DC) and as General Counsel and member of the Board of Governors of the Hispanic National Bar Association (HNBA).
In 2022, Ms. Moreno received the HBA-DC Judge Ricardo M. Urbina Lifetime Achievement Award and the HNBA Latina Commission Primera Abogada Award. In 2013, she received the Edmund J. Randolph Award in recognition of outstanding service to the U.S. Department of Justice and the nation. She also received the Meritorious Public Service Award and Medal from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security—U.S. Coast Guard for her outstanding service in initiating and conducting litigation in connection with the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and protecting human health and the environment. In 2009 and 1995, Hispanic Business Magazine named Ms. Moreno as one of the 100 Most Influential Hispanics in the United States. She received the AV Preeminent rating by Martindale-Hubbell in 2016.
Ms. Moreno received a Bachelor of Arts degree from New York University and a Juris Doctor degree from New York University School of Law. She was born in Cartagena, Colombia and is a U.S. citizen.
