Robert D. Sokolove, President

Mr. Sokolove is a founder and the President of Womble Carlyle Ecology Innovations, LLC. Prior to undertaking this collaborative effort with Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice PLLC, Mr. Sokolove founded, owned and successfully operated two pioneering companies involved in the fields of wetlands and floodplains. Wetland Development Corporation was one of the few companies in the United States providing wetland permitting, mitigation, and mitigation banking on a national basis. Wetland & Floodplain Consulting Company provided advice, consulting and expert testimony for law firms, corporations, government entities and not-for-profit organizations in the fields of floodplain mapping and flood claims, wetland permitting, wetland mitigation banking and other financial and land-use matters on a national basis.

For more than fifteen years, Mr. Sokolove has managed companies whose primary responsibilities include the coordination of permitting, siting, design, construction, and monitoring activities associated with the creation of wetland mitigation banks and other environmental approaches to the redevelopment of underutilized and contaminated sites.

Mr. Sokolove regularly:

• Directs the negotiations with the various resource and regulatory agencies and the entities that utilize mitigation bank credits; and
• Manages the process of obtaining approvals of environmental projects which involve complex resource allocation, including regulatory and legislative frameworks used to develop these projects.
• Represents the company and its project partners at all State and Federal functions including testimony before Federal and State legislative and regulatory bodies.

In addition, he successfully represented the U.S. Government and private industry through the U.S. Environmental Training Institute at their 1997 Bangkok, Thailand, multinational water resources conference, which included representatives of six Asian countries attempting to produce national water quality enforcement plans.

Mr. Sokolove has testified before Congress and advised federal regulators on the creation of wetlands mitigation banking regulations.

Mr. Sokolove has earned a national reputation in the areas of wetland regulation, permitting, and mitigation, as well as floodplain management and floodplain re-mapping, endangered species regulation, water quality control, and land-use protection. In addition to his legal training and experience, Mr. Sokolove has an extensive background in hydraulics and hydrology, soils comparison, and wetlands identification as well as the management skills of directing a company since 1981.

He is a regular speaker at industry and trade association meetings and conventions and has numerous articles and publications to his credit. As well as speaking engagements, he has presented multiple seminars at annual conventions of the American Society of Civil Engineers, the National Association of Floodplain Managers, American Institute of Architects, and various state soil scientists associations. He has spoken before the Edison Electric Institute, the Airports Council International-North America, the American Society of Landscape Architects, the Electric Power Research Institute, and various regulatory agency conventions such as regional U.S. Department of Transportation and Federal Aviation Administration seminars.

Among his approximately 100 publications, Mr. Sokolove has authored articles on wetland mitigation banking for the American Bar Association's Journal of Natural Resources and Environment, Real Estate Law Journal, Washington Legal Foundation Journal, and the ASCE's Conference on Parks, Recreation, and Marinas. Mr. Sokolove and his then company, U.S. Wetland Services, L.P., have also been featured in articles published by the Washington Business Journal, Legal Times, The Maryland Reporter, Montgomery County Journal, The Washington Post, and Airport Business.

Mr. Sokolove has testified as an expert before committees of the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives and also authored the Wetlands Mitigation Banking Bill passed by the Maryland State Legislature. His projects include the pursuit of wetland mitigation banks in 15 states as well as the implementation of various bioremediation projects for target industries. He is a founding member and past Treasurer of the National Mitigation Bankers Association.

Wetland & Floodplain Consulting Company, LLC

107 Brighton Road. Rehoboth Beach, DE 19971 · Phone: 302-381-8062 · Fax: 302-260-9680