JoAnn Bordeaux, J.D. Education Subcommittee

JoAnn Bordeaux is the Deputy Director of the Environmental Torts  Section of the Civil Division, Department of Justice. She graduated with a B.A. and M.A. from Western Washington State College in 1971. She attended the University of Puget Sound School of Law where she received her J.D. in 1977. In 1981, she received a Masters of Environmental Law and Water Resources degree with highest honors from the George Washington University School of Law. From 1980 to 1983, while employed by the Corps of Engineers, she was detailed as a trial attorney to the Environmental and Natural Resources Division, Department of Justice. In 1983, she joined the staff of  the Torts Branch, Civil Division, Department of Justice, where she served both as a trial attorney and assistant director. In 1989, she was appointed as the Deputy Director of Environmental Torts. During her tenure with the Torts Branch, she has had a wide variety of litigation experience in defending the United States in the massive asbestos litigation and in complex toxic tort litigation in federal district courts throughout the United States and its territories and in the Court of Federal Claims. In addition to defending the largest toxic tort cases within the Department of Justice, she has tried numerous cases involving other tort or contract issues. She has drafted and argued motions before Federal District Courts and Federal Courts of Appeal; and she has provided legal advice to several departments and agencies of the United States including the Department of Defense,  the Department of State, the Department of Interior, the Department of Agriculture, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the DOD Inter-Agency Lead-Based Paint Task Force, as well as the Office of United States Attorneys. She provided comments to the Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence published by the Federal Judicial Center in 1994. She has taught both within the Civil Division and at the National Advocacy Institute.