Raya B. Treiser

Raya has represented clients facing multifaceted legal challenges at the intersection of business, law and government. Prior to joining Kirkland, Raya’s representations included:

• Congressional Investigations: Advising the CEOs and senior executives of fortune 500 companies and non-governmental organizations on testifying before the United States Congress and responding to congressional inquiries.
• Crisis Management: Leading multi-disciplinary teams to advise clients on crisis preparedness, mitigation and response.
• Federal Permitting: Counseling project developers in connection with securing federal permits and approvals for significant onshore and offshore energy, natural resource, infrastructure, and real estate projects.
• Internal Investigations: Handling complex and sensitive internal investigations.
• Climate Change Policy: Advising clients in developing corporate policies, positions and disclosures related to climate change.
• Native American Tribes: Representing Native American tribes in matters related to natural resource development, tribal self-governance and self-determination.

Prior to joining Kirkland, Raya was a partner in WilmerHale’s Energy, Environment and Natural Resources practice.

Prior to WilmerHale, Raya played a key role in developing and implementing federal energy and infrastructure policies at the Department of the Interior (DOI) and the Obama White House. She served as part of a core leadership team at DOI responsible for the reform and reorganization of offshore drilling regulations in the aftermath of the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. She went on to serve in the Office of the Secretary of the Interior, where she led efforts to streamline the permitting of renewable energy and transmission projects on public lands and shape the first offshore wind lease areas along the Atlantic Coast.

Raya was then selected by White House staff to lead a government-wide initiative to improve the federal review of large energy and infrastructure projects. In this role, she spearheaded a 13-agency initiative to improve federal permitting, which resulted in a government-wide plan, now codified in federal law under Title 41 of the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act (FAST-41).