Jessica Lee Reece
Ms. Reece is an Associate in the Environmental Practice Group of Smith, Gambrell & Russell, LLP, specializing in Environmental/Natural Resources Law and Sustainability Law.
Her practice includes environmental, toxic tort, personal injury and other litigation in both state and federal court. Working with other Environmental Practice Group attorneys, Ms. Reece recently co-authored the briefs which resulted in summary judgment for SGR’s client in a long-running toxic tort case in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia involving alleged exposure to beryllium.
Ms. Reece counsels clients in connection with sustainability issues, ranging from alternative energy and green building contracts to advising on climate change regulations and available federal and state incentives. Ms. Reece is advising solar companies in New Jersey and California in their efforts to site and develop more than 150 megawatts of solar farms, assisting them in connection with federal and state incentives, and preparing transaction documents for those projects. As a member of SGR’s Sustainability Practice Group, Ms. Reece also provides legal advice to community groups.
Ms. Reece serves as Director of the Georgia Solar Energy Association Advisory Board and as board president for Generation Green of the Georgia Conservancy, where she chairs their annual fundraiser, Verde!, which benefits the Georgia Conservancy’s efforts to protect and promote stewardship of Georgia’s environment in the metro Atlanta area. She also serves on numerous steering and host committees for groups including Southeast Green, PATH Foundation, The Trust for Public Land and the Young Lawyers Division of the Atlanta Bar Association. Ms. Reece is also an active member of the Green Chamber of the South and provisional advisor for the Junior League of Atlanta. She serves on the Advisory Board for SGR’s award-winning Trust the Leaders magazine, a quarterly general interest legal publication written entirely by SGR attorneys.
Ms. Reece is a frequent author and panelist on renewable energy and sustainability topics. Her work has been featured in numerous regional and national magazines, and she actively authors a sustainability blog entitled “Life in the Green Lane” for the online women’s magazine, Womenetics.com. Ms. Reece has also spoken on panels on the topics of renewable energy and sustainability, including Solar Praxis 2010 and the Southeast Bioenergy Conference. She also manages and co-authors SGR’s environmental practice publications, which include an Environmental and Sustainability blog and a weekly Environmental and Sustainability newsletter.
Prior to practicing law, Ms. Reece worked as an editorial coordinator and editor-in-chief of LOUNGE: Augusta magazine with Morris Communications Company, LLC in Augusta, Georgia.
Ms. Reece received her A.B.J. degree, cum laude, in Newspaper Journalism from the University of Georgia in 2003, where she was a Bernard Ramsey Honors Scholar. She earned her J.D. degree, with honors, in 2006 from Georgia State College of Law where she received Honors/Distinction in Litigation, was on the Moot Court Board, the Student Trial Lawyers Association and a member of Phi Alpha Delta. While in law school, Ms. Reece clerked with Atlanta-based litigation firm, Casey Gilson P.C., assisting on cases involving toxic tort and business litigation, civil rights and government liability. Ms. Reece is a member of the Georgia Bar Association.
