The POWER List 2022: Pamela E. Barker

Lewis Rice, St. Louis

As co-chair of her firm’s Environmental, Chemical & Toxic Tort Department, Pamela Barker has a quarter century of experience under her belt having become a nationally recognized figure in this niche of practice.

After making the dean’s list at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, Barker went on to blend her experience in real estate development, corporate transactions and regulatory compliance with expertise in environmental law acquired during her tenure as environmental and regulatory counsel at Appvion, Inc. and her more than two decades at Godfrey & Kahn in Milwaukee which she joined in 1981.

By the time she joined Lewis Rice in 2015, she already had amassed an impressive resume. The first in-house attorney selected as chair of the American Bar Association’s Section of Environment, Energy and Resources, she was also honored as a fellow of the American and Wisconsin bar foundations as well as the American College of Real Estate Lawyers. The first woman elected president of the State Bar of Wisconsin, Barker established the diversity committee there and was a member of the ABA Task Force on Sustainability Financial Disclosures as well as serving on the board of directors for the Wisconsin Paper Council and Sustainable Business Council. At present, she serves in the ABA House of Delegates.

Barker has completed more than 100 environmental investigation or remediation projects.