James Watt Moorman

1937 - 2024

1937-2024
James Watt Moorman, 86, passed away on April 23, 2024, after a brief illness. He was at home with Brenda, his beloved wife of 63 years.

Jim was a pioneer in the field of environmental law who had a successful career in government, public interest law, and private practice. He considered curiosity a great gift, and had a wide variety of interests including literature, history, classical music, birding, science, space, hiking, vegetable gardening, and baseball. Most of all, he was devoted to and loved his family.

Jim grew up in Rutherfordton, North Carolina where he was an Eagle Scout and counselor at the Piedmont Boy Scout Camp. He and Brenda Thompson met in elementary school and they attended Duke University, Jim as an Angier Duke Scholar. Jim and Brenda were married in 1961, and Jim graduated from Duke Law School in 1962. He served in the North Carolina National Guard and the Reserves in the 1960's.

Jim began his legal career at Davis Polk Wardwell in New York. He spent many weekends around the Beaverkill River in upstate New York, where he learned of the Sierra Club's conservation work. Intrigued with the new field of environmental law, Jim and Brenda moved to Washington, DC where he joined the Justice Department as a staff attorney in the Lands and Natural Resources Division.

In 1968, Jim joined a newly-formed public interest law firm, the Center for Law and Social Policy. During his time at the Center he brought a number of significant lawsuits, including those resulting in the de-registration of DDT and in enjoining construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipe Line. The latter case gave rise to the modern Environmental Impact Statement. Jim, along with others, founded the Environmental Law Institute which published a compendium of environmental litigation in the United States. In the early 1970s, Jim led the new Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund in San Francisco, where he oversaw significant environmental matters such as protection of the Tsongas National Forest in Alaska. While Jim and Brenda were living In San Francisco, their beloved daughter, Lily Elizabeth, was born.

After the election of President Jimmy Carter in 1976, Jim, Brenda, and Beth moved back to Washington, DC, where Jim was appointed Assistant Attorney General of the Lands and Natural Resources Division of the Justice Department. After his tenure at Justice, Jim became head of the environmental law practice at Cadwalader, Wickersham and Taft, where he practiced for 18 years. Following his retirement from the law firm, he led the False Claims Act Legal Center, a national public interest organization that helps citizens bring lawsuits for fraud against the government.

Jim served on many nonprofit boards including the National Parks and Conservation Society, the Open Space Institute, Journey Through Hallowed Ground, and the Audubon Naturalist Society. He also served on the Board of Visitors of Duke's School of the Environment and the School of Public Policy, and was a founding board member and Chairman of the Environmental Law Institute.

An avid reader, Jim was a member of several reading groups, and started a short-story reading group that has met for decades and remains active today. Jim most enjoyed spending time with his family at their working farm in Hume, Virginia. He also enjoyed attending his daughter Beth's horse shows and later his grandsons' sporting events.

Jim is survived by his wife Brenda, daughter Beth; son-in-law John Winn; two beloved grandsons Owen and Liam; and brother Buckner Moorman. He was predeceased by his parents Louis Lawrence Moorman and Lillian Watt Moorman; his sister, Barbara Boatwright; and his brother Larry Moorman.

A memorial service will be held at St. John's Episcopal Church, 3240 O Street, N.W. in Georgetown on June 28, 2024, at 2 p.m., with a reception to follow.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations be made in Jim's honor to The San Francisco-based Sierra Club Foundation, to EarthJustice, or to Defenders of Wildlife in Washington, DC.