Ann Prezyna is an environmental attorney with over 40 years of government, corporate and nonprofit experience, who has spent her career devoted to protecting the environment and preserving wildlife and its habitat.
Having spent most of her career in public service, Ann is particularly attuned to the vital role that independent watchdog organizations play in keeping government agencies honest. She helped form Washington Wildlife First because she has observed first-hand the need for greater accountability among Washington’s environmental agencies, which she believes have frequently fallen short of meeting their responsibilities as trustees of the state’s wild lands, waters, fish, and wildlife.
Ann has been focused on fighting for the preservation of the natural world since childhood, when she observed massive fish kills and toxic algae blooms on Lake Erie near her home. Her legal career began in Alaska, where she worked as in-house environmental counsel for British Petroleum and on environmental and natural resource matters as an assistant attorney general for the Alaska Department of Law.
Following a year-long road trip to explore the wild areas of the “Lower 48,” Ann accepted a position with the Seattle office of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. During more than 25 years at the EPA, Ann primarily served as the deputy regional counsel, helping to oversee all legal work for the Pacific Northwest, including civil and criminal litigation to enforce federal environmental laws to protect air and water.
In 2014, Ann “retired” from the EPA, and became the general counsel for the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. At that time, Sea Shepherd was embroiled in federal court litigation brought by the state-sponsored Japanese whalers over the confrontations documented in “Whale Wars,” and was also running campaigns in Taiji, Japan to stop the slaughter of dolphins, and in the Faroe Islands to stop the killing of pilot whales.
Ann hired Claire Loebs Davis and her team at Lane Powell to defend Sea Shepherd in the Japanese whaling litigation. In 2017, after that litigation had concluded, Ann joined Claire to start up Lane Powell’s Earth and Animal Advocacy practice group. Two years later, in June 2019, Ann and Claire co-founded Animal & Earth Advocates, a law firm that is devoted exclusively to public interest legal action on behalf of animals, wildlife, and the environment.
During its first two years, Animal and Earth Advocates has represented more than two dozen individuals, local nonprofits, and national environmental organizations in litigation at the state and federal level. Recently, Ann stepped down as a partner of the law firm, although she remains engaged in numerous legal matters, including pro bono projects on behalf of local, national, and international nonprofits. Ann is also President of the Board of Directors for the Coastal Watershed Institute, which is focused on nearshore restoration near the Elwha River.