ANN ARBOR ? Technology and business-law attorney Claudia Rast – also a member of the New Enterprise Forum’s board – has joined Butzel Long as a shareholder in the firm’s Ann Arbor office.

Rast, as part of her duties at NEF, coaches technology start-ups in their efforts to connect with management expertise, venture capital, and business partners.

Rast also is an experienced environmental lawyer, focusing on alternative energy and sustainability practices, including work on the development of a global Rule of Law Index for environment and energy with the World Justice Project, an offshoot of the American Bar Association. Locally, she is a Board Member of the Clean Energy Coalition (CEC), where she developed the legal framework for the DOE?s $15 million grant to the CEC for the Michigan Green Fleets project and the Michigan Public Service Commission?s $4.5 million grant for the Cities of Promise program.

In addition, Rast has substantial experience in other federal and state regulatory issues, including the removal of vast underground storage tank farms in the 1990?s; Superfund remediation and litigation; Clean Water Act permitting and litigation; Solid Waste permitting and compliance; and SWAP grant permitting.

She is a frequent speaker on matters ranging from Electronic Discovery, Online Advertising, Privacy, Identity Theft, Environmental Sustainability in the Law Office to Data Security Breaches for the Michigan Institute of Continuing Legal Education (ICLE). Most recently, she moderated a panel on ?Hot Topics in Environmental Law? at the American Bar Association?s Annual Meeting in San Francisco.

Rast?s memberships include the American Bar Association?s Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources, where she has been involved in the leadership of the Section since 1999, including Chair of the Section in 2008-2009, Ann Arbor?s New Enterprise Forum, the Michigan League of Conservation Voters Board of Directors, ICLE?s Technology Training Advisory Board, and the Information Technology Council of the State Bar of Michigan.

In 2001, Rast was the only lawyer named as a Technology Industry Leader in Crain?s Detroit Business, and in 2003 the Ann Arbor Chapter of American Women in Computing named her as one of twenty ?Top Michigan Women in Computing.?

Rast is a graduate of the University of Michigan (B.S., Natural Resources, 1975) and cum laude graduate of the University of Detroit School of Law (1986) where she served as Editor-in-Chief of the University of Detroit Law Review (1985-1986).

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