Overview
Experience
Representative Matters
Raya’s representative matters include:
- Congressional and State AG Investigations: Preparing the CEOs, senior executives and members of the Board of Directors of clients in a broad spectrum of industries to testify before the United States Congress. Advising clients in responding to congressional and State Attorney General inquiries related to climate, ESG, energy, environmental policy and healthcare.
- Crisis Management: Leading multi-disciplinary teams to advise clients across a broad spectrum of industries on preparedness, mitigation and response to reputational and legal crises.
- Climate and ESG Policy: Advising clients on the risks and opportunities related to US federal climate and ESG policies.
- Federal Permitting: Counseling the developers of significant onshore and offshore energy, natural resource and infrastructure projects on federal permitting risks and strategy.
Clerk & Government Experience
Infrastructure Initiative Policy Lead, Office of Management & BudgetThe White House, Executive Office of the President
Counselor to the Deputy SecretaryUnited States Department of the Interior
Advisor, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation & EnforcementUnited States Department of the Interior
Prior Experience
Prior to joining Kirkland, Raya was a partner in another large law firm.
Prior to rejoining private practice, Raya served as part of a core leadership team at the Department of the Interior responsible for managing the response to the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. She went on to serve in the Office of the Secretary of the Interior, where she led efforts to streamline the permitting of renewable energy and transmission projects on public lands, coordinate the permitting of energy projects in Alaska, and shape the first offshore wind lease areas along the Atlantic Coast. Raya was then selected by White House staff to lead a government-wide initiative to improve the federal review of large energy and infrastructure projects. In this role, she spearheaded a 13-agency initiative to improve federal permitting, which resulted in a government-wide plan, now codified in federal law under Title 41 of the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act (FAST-41).
More
Thought Leadership
Publications
Co-Author, “The Inflation Reduction Act is Signed into Law by President Biden: Key Energy and Infrastructure Provisions,” Kirkland Alert, August 16, 2022
Co-Author, “Manchin-Schumer Inflation Reduction Act: Proposed Environmental and Climate Policy Initiatives,” Kirkland Alert, August 4, 2022
Co-Author, “The Major Questions Doctrine Reigns Supreme in West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency – Implications for Climate Policy and Impact Investing,” Kirkland Alert, July 6, 2022
Co-Author, “Biden Administration Announces Major Environmental Justice Enforcement Initiatives,” Pratt’s Energy Law Report, Volume 22, Number 8, September 2022
Co-Author, “New Lease Areas, Record-Breaking $4.37 Billion Lease Sale Showcase Big Bet on the U.S. Offshore Wind Sector. What Comes Next?,” Pratt’s Energy Law Report, Volume 22, Number 7, July–August 2022
Co-Author, Chapter 6, “Congressional Investigations,” Business and Commercial Litigation in Federal Courts, Fifth Edition, December 2021
Co-Author, “Improving climate governance under the Biden Administration,” Corporate Secretary, March 23, 2021
Speaking Engagements
Speaker, “The View from DC, the States, and Beyond,” NYSE Sustainability Leaders Summit, April 2, 2025
Moderator, “Climate Investing Opportunities,” D.C. Women in Climate Investing & Finance, May 7, 2024
Speaker, “SEC’s Final Disclosure Rule,” Kirkland Webinar, March 12, 2024
Fireside Chat with Gretchen Kittel, Department of Energy, Kirkland’s Leadership Summit for Women in Energy and Infrastructure, October 10, 2023
Moderator, Third Annual Spring Energy Summit, Kay Bailey Hutchinson Energy Center, March 31, 2023
Fireside Chat with Trisha Miller, White House Office on Domestic Climate Policy, Women in Energy and Climate Investing, December 6, 2022
Fireside Chat with Senator Tammy Duckworth, Kirkland’s Leadership Summit for Women in Energy and Infrastructure, May 3, 2022
Speaker, “Energy, Climate, ESG & Environmental Matters in Congress and the Biden Administration,” Kirkland Webinar, September 23, 2021
Panelist, “Energy, Climate, ESG, Environmental and Tax Matters in the First 100 Days of the Biden Administration,” Kirkland Webinar, May 11, 2021
Moderator, “California Offshore Wind: The Federal and State Permitting Process,” California Offshore Wind Permitting Webinar, May 2021
Panelist, “Doing Business in the New Energy and Environmental Policy Landscape,” Women's Bar Association of the District of Columbia Webinar, April 26, 2021
Recognition
Recognized in the Legal 500 U.S. for Government – State Attorneys General, 2024
Recognized in Chambers USA for Government Relations: Congressional Investigations, 2024
Recognized in Lawdragon for “Green 500: Leaders in Environmental Law,” 2023
Recognized in Best Lawyers in America for Environmental Law, 2018–2023
Recognized in Super Lawyers as a “Rising Star” in Washington D.C., 2019–2020
Credentials
Admissions & Qualifications
- District of Columbia
- New York
Education
- Georgetown University Law CenterJ.D.cum laude2009
- Sciences Po & Paris I Panthéon-SorbonneMaster in Global Business Law2008
- Georgetown University Walsh School of Foreign ServiceB.S.magna cum laude2005