Biography
Noah Perch-Ahern is a preeminent environmental and energy attorney but also has broad-based experience representing and counseling clients in many practice areas. Noah maintains a national environmental and energy practice involving complex litigation, regulatory counsel, and transactional matters.
At the same time, Noah closely manages clients' matters involving everything from high-value probate and nonprofit foundation matters to significant corporate acquisitions. Noah has represented clients in numerous high-stakes matters and is often tapped to work on complex cases and disputes without an easy solution.
“My goal, at every juncture, is achieving client success. Whether preparing for a jury trial, assisting a client with a confidential or sensitive legal matter, or handling a critical development project or major deal, every strategic decision I make is not only based on a complete understanding of the relevant legal framework and the key points of persuasion but fundamentally, the relationship of the strategy to a final successful outcome for the client.”
Having not only deep knowledge across the field of environmental law, but also wide-ranging experience advising clients in various practice areas, Noah employs his skills and knowledge in a variety of contexts. He has significant litigation experience and has tried jury and bench trials. At the same time, Noah regularly helps clients devise solutions to difficult regulatory problems, represents clients in connection with administrative proceedings and enforcement matters, assists clients with deals and development projects, and represents clients in connection with energy-related transactions.
Noah has played a key role in a variety of high stakes matters, including cost recovery and tort actions involving Superfund sites, constitutional litigation, public utility litigation, appellate litigation, environmental remediation projects, portfolio deals concerning electric generation facilities, landfills, and downstream petroleum assets, development projects related to renewable energy projects and industrial expansion, and compliance, permitting, and enforcement matters concerning air quality, water quality, hazardous waste, and energy and utility regulation.
Noah has counseled clients concerning all of the major federal environmental statutes, including CERCLA, RCRA, the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, and NEPA, and has also advised clients concerning various state environmental statutes and regulations around the country, including regulatory programs related to climate change and cap-and-trade, coastal regulations, Brownfield laws, water rights, and land use regulations such as CEQA. A significant portion of Noah’s work involves complex air quality matters and sophisticated regulatory challenges.
Noah augments his practice through his leadership in a variety of organizations focusing on environmental and energy issues, through which he works with key decision-makers of environmental and energy regulatory initiatives.
Professional Affiliations
- TreePeople, Vice Chair and Member of Board of Directors
- TreePeople Land, Vice Chair and Member of Board of Directors
- Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, Co-Chair of Water, Energy & Environmental Sustainability Council
- Young Professionals in Energy Los Angeles (YPE), President Emeritus
- Southern California Water Committee (SCWC), Board of Trustees
Awards
- Benchmark Litigation, 2018 - 2025
- Los Angeles Business Journal, Thriving in Their 40's, 2024
- Next Generation Lawyer of the Year, Century City Bar Association, 2018
- Southern California Super Lawyers, Rising Stars, 2018 - 2020
Bar Admissions
- , 2009
- , 2007
Court Admissions
- United States District Court for the Southern, Eastern, Central, and Northern Districts of California
- United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
Education
- Tulane University (J.D., magna cum laude)
- University of New Hampshire (B.A., summa cum laude)
- Political Science
- Phi Beta Kappa