Mr. Holmstead, who is returning to private law practice after a year abroad with his family, will head Bracewell's newly formed Environmental Strategies Group. The new practice group will advise the nation's top companies and business groups as they grapple with increasingly complex environmental and energy development challenges in the coming years. Mr. Holmstead served at EPA from 2001 to 2005, and headed the Office of Air and Radiation longer than any professional in the agency’s history. During his tenure at EPA, he was the architect of several of the agency’s most important initiatives, including the Clean Air Interstate Rule, the Clean Air Diesel Rule, the Mercury Rule for power plants and the reform of the New Source Review program. He also oversaw the development of the President’s Clear Skies Legislation and key parts of the administration’s Global Climate Change Initiative. Mr. Holmstead also served in the first Bush administration from 1989 to 1993, as Associate Counsel to the President in the White House of President George H.W. Bush. In that capacity, he was involved in the passage of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 and the key steps taken to implement that act. Mr. Holmstead graduated from Yale Law School in 1987. He earned his undergraduate degrees from Brigham Young University, graduating first in his class in 1984, with degrees in economics and English.