Rachel D. Guthrie

Principle Attorney
(816) 608-2760 Direct

Rachel D. Guthrie is a founding member and partner in The Merryman Guthrie Law Firm LLC.

Rachel’s practice focuses on complex litigation and environmental matters. Prior to forming The Merryman Guthrie Law Firm LLC, Rachel worked for a boutique environmental firm specializing in CERCLA (“Superfund”) cost recovery and contribution cases. Rachel began her law career as an environmental associate at a large law firm in Kansas City, where she had a diverse practice in civil and criminal litigation, business transactions and regulatory compliance counseling in matters arising under various environmental and energy laws, including CERCLA, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Federal Insecticide, Rodenticide and Fungicide Act (FIFRA), and radiation safety and public utilities regulation.

As a law student, Rachel served as the dedicated environmental law clerk for the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Oregon, where she represented various federal agencies in environmental matters in public lands and national forests in cases under the Wild Free Roaming Horse and Burro Act, National Forest Management Act, National Environmental Policy Act, Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, Migratory Bird Treaty Act, Clean Air Act, and Oil Pollution Act. She also served as a law clerk with the International Environmental Law Project, where her work focused on the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) and the effects of climate change on the sovereignty of low-lying island states.

Before law school, Rachel worked as a field biologist on commercial fishing vessels in the Bering Sea, traveled the western United States and Canada, and interned as a primate zookeeper in post-Katrina New Orleans.

Rachel is also the Founder and President of American Wolf Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit supporting conservation, awareness and coexistence initiatives for endangered wolves, with a special emphasis on the critically endangered American red wolf (C. rufus).

Rachel enjoys photography, hiking, road trips, camping, gardening, and DIY home projects.

Publications

Rachel D. Guthrie, The Silent Strength of CERCLA: Private Party Cleanups—and the Judicial Decisions Jeopardizing Them, __ Georgetown Envtl. L. Rev. ___ (forthcoming 2024)

Rachel D. Guthrie, Grizzly Delisting Controversy Roars On: FWS Faces Unusual Coalition of Opposition, Judicial Setbacks, in Effort to Delist Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem Grizzly; Similar Battle Looms for NCDE Bruins, American Bar Association Newsletters, Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources Endangered Species Committee (Oct. 25, 2018), available at https://bit.ly/2Ske082

Co-author, Environmental Considerations with Respect to Real Property, in Missouri Practice Series Vol. I: Methods of Practice—Transaction Guide (4th ed. Supp. 2013 and 2014) 

Rachel D. Guthrie, Muddying the Waters: The Downstream Implications of Wal-Mart v. Dukes for Medical Monitoring Class Actions in Missouri, 7 Pittsburgh J. Envtl. & Pub. Health L. 305 (2013), available at http://ssrn.com/abstract=2258745

Rachel D. Guthrie, The Public Trust Doctrine in Arkansas, in The Public Trust Doctrine in Forty-Five States (2013 ed.), SSRN only, available at http://ssrn.com/abstract=2235329

Rachel D. Guthrie & Michael C. Blumm, Internationalizing the Public Trust Doctrine: Natural Law and Constitutional and Statutory Approaches to Fulfilling the Saxion Vision, 45 U.C. Davis L. Rev. 741 (2012), available at http://papers.ssrn.com/abstract =1816628

Presentations

The Relationship Between Environmental Law and Public Health, University of Kansas Medical Center, Master of Public Health Program, Kansas City (Sept. 06, 2013; February 5, 2015; February 6, 2016)

The Relationship Between Environmental Law and Real Estate, National American University, Legal Studies Department, Overland Park (October 13, 2015)

Co-presenter with David R. Tripp & Belinda Holmes, RCRA: An Overview from EPA and the Private Sector, Kansas City, MO (Oct. 28, 2013 CLE)

Education

Lewis & Clark Law School, cum laude, J.D., 2012
Certificate in Environmental and Natural Resources Law

University of Missouri–Kansas City, cum laude, B.A., 2006
Biology
Environmental Studies

Bar Admissions

State

  • State of Missouri, 2012

  • State of Kansas, 2013

Federal Appellate Courts

  • Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, 2014

  • Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, 2017

  • Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, 2022

Federal District Courts

  • Western District of Missouri, 2012

  • District of Kansas, 2013

  • Southern District of Texas, 2014

  • Northern District of Illinois, 2016

  • Southern District of Illinois, 2017

Professional & Civic Activities

American Wolf Foundation

President & Founder 

American Bar Association

Member, Section of Environment, Energy and Resources

Past Vice Chair, Membership, Endangered Species Committee, Aug. 2020–Oct. 2020

Past Co-Vice Chair, Committee Articles, Endangered Species Committee, Aug. 2019–July 2020

Past Vice-Chair At Large, Endangered Species Committee, Aug. 2018–July 2019

Missouri Bar Association

Member, Environmental and Energy Law Committee

Kansas Bar Association

Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association

Past Co-chair, Environmental & Energy Committee, Jan. 2014–Dec. 2017

City of Kansas City, Missouri Environmental Management Commission

Past Commissioner, Mayoral Appointment Term June 05, 2014–June 05, 2017

Midwest Innocence Project Next Gen Advisory Board

Past Member, Jan. 2016–Dec. 2017