Portland litigation firm Markowitz, Herbold, Glade & Mehlhaf, PC announced that Lawson Fite has joined the firm as an associate. His practice will focus on business litigation.

Prior to joining MHGM, Fite served as a trial attorney for the Wildlife and Marine Resources Section of the U.S. Department of Justice, Environmental and Natural Resources Division in Washington, D.C. While at the Department of Justice, he represented the United States in federal civil litigation relating to wildlife and fisheries laws. Fite has represented a wide range of Federal agencies, from the Navy to the Small Business Administration, and litigated protection issues over species from cave bugs to ice seals. He is well-versed in the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and other environmental statutes, as well as in civil procedure and administrative law.

At the Department of Justice, Fite successfully represented the U.S. Coast Guard in an ESA case regarding the Deepwater Horizon oil spill response, ensuring that necessary clean-up activities could go forward while also ensuring protection of Gulf wildlife. In 2010, he solely handled one of the first ESA listing cases involving species affected by climate change, obtaining a favorable summary judgment decision. In 2009, Fite received a Special Achievement Award for the successful defense of an ESA challenge to a timber salvage project in Kentucky, including the denial of a preliminary injunction motion. 

Earlier in his career Fite clerked for Justice Walter Carpeneti of the Alaska Supreme Court, clerked at the Nature Conservancy in Arlington, Virginia, and served as a research assistant for Professor John Leshy at Harvard Law School.

Fite is a graduate of Harvard Law School and Harvard College where he graduated cum laude in Environmental Science & Public Policy.