Who Are We: Professional Résumé

Ernest B. Abbott: Disaster Relief Law Specialist

Ernest Abbott is one of the nation's leading authorities on the legal aspects of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. Since 2002, after ending a four-year term as General Counsel for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Mr. Abbott has represented a broad range of public and private clients on legal issues encountered when preparing for, responding to, or recovering from catastrophic events—whether natural or man-made.

Services Provided for Clients

• Represented Write-Your-Own Insurance Committee before FEMA in connection with new flood insurance marketing proposal.
• Subject Matter Expert to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) course on Public Health Emergency Law
• Performed compliance audit for Write-Your-Own Insurance Companies seeking to assure compliance with the National Flood Insurance Act and DHS/FEMA’s NFIP Regulations and Policies.
• Assisted private companies in obtaining appropriate compensation after its assets were seized by government officials during the Hurricane Katrina Response.
• Created industry-specific training materials for client associations.
• Represented client associations, whose members or clients are affected by proposed DHS/FEMA regulations, before DHS/FEMA.
• Advised clients on DHS/FEMA eligibility rules and restrictions and identified strategies to overcome potential legal barriers to protect their receipt of disaster assistance funding.
• Prepared and prevailed in appeals from adverse DHS/FEMA eligibility determinations.
• Helped vendors and contractors, who perform emergency and reconstruction work after catastrophic events, ensure that contracts are structured so that work is performed to maximize their customers’ eligibility for federal reimbursement.

Affiliations and Presentations

An accomplished and audience-friendly speaker, Mr. Abbott frequently gives training sessions and presentations, sharing his knowledge of the intricacies and depth of disaster relief assistance and offering guidance on maximizing benefits from all possible funding sources.

• American Bar Association, 1977-present; Council Member, Section of State and Local Government Law; Chair, Committee on Emergency Management and Homeland Security 2002-present; Chair, Multi-Section Task Force on Homeland Security, 2005-present.
• National Emergency Management Association, Associate Member and Private sector Liaison to the legal committee.
• Laws, Disasters, and Federalism: Who’s in Charge?, a presentation prepared for the American Bar Association. February 2006.
• A Short History of the Development and Operations of FEMA a presentation to the Rural Electric Statewide Managers Association. November 2005.
• Federal Disasters and the Municipal Lawyer- What You Need to Know When the FEMA Cavalry Arrives, a paper prepared for the International Municipal Lawyers Association. April 2002.
• Limiting Liability When Warning about Risks presented at the Seismic Risk Communication Conference of Western States Seismic Council. October 2001.
• Laws and Lawyers: Enabling Coordination a presentation to NATO Partnership for Peace seminar on Legal issues on International Emergency Management. September 2000.

Publications

• “A Legal Guide to Homeland Security and Emergency Management for State and Local Governments,” ABA Press 2005.
• “Representing Local Governments in Catastrophic Events: DHS/FEMA Response and Recovery Issues.” 37 Urban Lawyer 467 (2005)
• Co-author of “Public Health Emergency Law,” chapter in R. Goodman, M Rothstein, R. Hoffman, W. Lopez, and G. Matthews, Public Health Law in Public Health Practice, 2nd Ed.
• Are You Ready? What Lawyers Need to Know about Emergency Preparedness and Disaster Recovery, 70 minute Video Produced by ABA Center of Continuing Legal Education and ABA Section of State and local Government law, 2005.  (Announcer, Moderator, and Content Director).
• “Homeland Security in the 21st Century: New Inroads on the state Police Power,” 36 Urban Lawyer 837 (Fall 2004). “Availability of Disaster Assistance from FEMA: Health Care Emergencies,” in K. J. McGlown (Ed.) Terrorism and Disaster Management: Preparing Healthcare Leaders for the New Reality. Chicago, IL: Health Administration Press.
• “An Electric Cooperative’s Introduction to FEMA,” Published by The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, March 2003

At FEMA

• As FEMA General Counsel from 1997 - 2001, Mr. Abbott was among the handful of agency leaders with responsibilities covering all FEMA programs, including disaster and mitigation grant programs, flood insurance programs, national security preparedness programs, and chemical stockpile and radiological preparedness programs.
• During his FEMA tenure, Mr. Abbott reviewed all FEMA regulatory actions and proposals, managed interagency regulatory coordination for FEMA, and directed the legal review of all final agency appeal decisions. FEMA's regulatory and appellate agenda focused on the agency's key ongoing challenges: treatment of repetitive loss structures, duplication of benefits created by insurance coverage and other assistance programs, debris removal contracting, building codes and standards, and the scope of authority to fund structural improvements during restoration.
• After the Cerro Grande fire in May 2000, Mr. Abbott led the regulatory development of a $500 million FEMA compensation program arising from wildfire damage in the Los Alamos, New Mexico region.
• Mr. Abbott dedicated particular attention to strengthening FEMA's National Flood Insurance Program, which pays roughly $1 billion claims annually for flood losses. He managed an integrated litigation defense and regulatory reform strategy to reduce the program's exposure to punitive damage claims.

Related Experience Broadens Mr. Abbott's Service Offerings

Mr. Abbott has considerable related experience in the energy and environmental industries. He served for more than 10 years as a managing legal and regulatory executive at Tenneco Energy, and for six years as a senior attorney adviser in both the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Interstate Commerce Commission. He began his career at the Washington, D.C. law firm of Hogan & Hartson, where his principal assignments focused on antitrust and energy issues.

Mr. Abbott holds a law degree from Harvard Law School (magna cum laude, 1976), a master of public policy degree from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government (1976), and a bachelor of arts degree from Swarthmore College (high honors, 1972). Mr. Abbott is admitted to the bar in the District of Columbia, the State of Texas, and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.