Ex-federal defender turns to private law practice

After spending 20 years wrangling with all manner of legal cases for the Department of Agriculture — mostly representing the Forest Service — Ken Pitt is setting up shop as an environmental attorney in Polson.

His most recent years with the USDA Office of General Counsel were spent in Denver, so his retirement in June allowed for a long-awaited return to Montana at a home and orchard he acquired purchased on Finley Point about four years ago.

During the winter of 1978 and 1979, Pitt and his wife, Eileen Neill, were the winter caretakers at the cavernous, snow-covered Many Glacier Hotel, which he describes as a great experience despite the extreme isolation.

“It was right when ‘The Shining’ came out and we refused to read the book or watch the movie because we knew about it. We didn’t kill each other so we decided to get married,” Pitt said with a laugh.

While attending the University of Montana School of Forestry, Pitt worked for about four years as a seasonal bear management ranger in Glacier National Park.

“I really liked working for the Park Service and being in Glacier,” Pitt said.

His forestry studies included environmental law and that prompted him on a “kind of long process” of gravitating toward that field and entering the UM Law School.

Pitt, 60, started his career with the U.S. Justice Department’s Wildlife Marine Resource Section in Washington, D.C., prosecuting cases that involved Endangered Species Act and Lacey Act violations.

He got an internship with the Forest Service, an agency he was familiar with since his father was a forest ranger in the 1940s, and he joined the USDA Office of the General Counsel in 1985.

That Missoula-based job quickly immersed him in water law, representing the agency before the Montana Water Court.

He went on to specialize in a Forest Service abandoned mine program involving Superfund cleanups, and handling cases involving the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act.

Toward the end of his government career, Pitt became more of a generalist, getting into Forest Service law enforcement, outfitter and guide and grazing cases, along with claims enforcement.

With his experience, knowledge and contacts, Pitt figures he test the waters as a private practice environmental attorney, possibly representing clients in court or simply providing consulting services.

“I’m kind of in a wait-and-see mode,” said Pitt, who won’t take any cases against the Forest Service any time soon.

“If someone says, ‘Hey, I want to sue the Forest Service,’ well there’s a conflict of interest there,” he said.

While he anticipates a slow wind-up for his practice, Pitt says he keeps plenty busy with his orchard.

“It’s one of those things that when I was practicing, I found to be very relaxing,” he said of working in an orchard that produces grapes that are sold to the Mission Mountain Winery and the Flathead Valley Winery.

Pitt and Eileen Neil have two grown daughters. One works for the White River National Forest in Colorado and the other works for the Tongass National Forest in Alaska.

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by email at jmann@dailyinterlake.com.