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Francis S. Blake
Biography
[EPA press release - June 28, 1985]
The U.S. Senate today confirmed Francis S. Blake as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's General Counsel.
Blake had been a partner since 1983 in the law firm of Swidler, Berlin and Strelw, Chtd., where he specialized in environmental, utility and administrative law.
From 1981 to 1983, he served as Deputy Counsel to Vice President Bush, and Deputy Counsel to the Presidential Task Force on Regulatory Relief. His duties included work on a wide range of regulatory issues, as well as other legal issues for the Office of the Vice President.
Before that, Blake was an associate with Leva, Hawes, Symington, Martin and Oppenheimer, working primarily on environmental litigation. He was a law clerk to Justice John Paul Stevens of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1977 to 1978, a law clerk for Judge Wilfred Feinberg of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit from 1976 to 1977, and a legislative aide to the Joint Committee on Social Welfare for the Massachusetts State Legislature from 1971 to 1973.
Blake, a native of Boston, received his undergraduate degree from Harvard College in government. He received his J.D. in 1976 from Columbia Law School, and he was Editor-in-Chief of the Columbia Law Review, a Kent Scholar and a Stone Scholar.