Attorneys & Professional Staff: Richard A. Allen

Title:  Partner
Email:  raallen@zsrlaw.com
Department:  Surface Transportation
Practice Areas:  U.S. Supreme Court Litigation; Railroad Regulation; Motor Carrier Regulation; Civil Litigation; State Laws
Education:  Harvard University (B.A. cum laude, 1967); Columbia University (J.D., 1970)
Phone:  202.973.7902

Richard Allen specializes in transportation law and appellate and general civil litigation. He has appeared before the U.S. Supreme Court in 10 cases and before other state and federal appellate courts in many other cases. He was recently lead counsel for Norfolk Southern Railway in obtaining federal approval to acquire a majority of Conrail. His other clients include railroads, ocean shipping companies, bus companies and trucking companies.

Mr. Allen's litigation experience includes representing transportation companies and others in more than 15 actions successfully challenging state taxes on constitutional grounds. In 2003, he successfully represented a railroad in a suit challenging the company's title to rights-of-way. In recent years, he successfully argued cases in the federal courts of appeals challenging Department of Transportation regulations involving intercity buses and the Americans with Disabilities Act, Surface Transportation Board decisions approving railroad consolidations, rail line abandonments and conversion of rail lines to recreational trails.

Mr. Allen has also served as the arbitrator in a number of commercial disputes involving transportation.

Following graduation from Columbia University School of Law, where he was Note Editor for the Columbia Law Review, Mr. Allen clerked for Judge Carl McGowan of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Mr. Allen was an Assistant to the Solicitor General from 1976 to 1979 and was General Counsel to the Interstate Commerce Commission from 1979 to 1981.

Mr. Allen is licensed to practice before the United States Supreme Court, the D.C. Court of Appeals and various federal circuit and district courts.

Recent Articles:

A Gun May Be A Gun May Be A Gun: Defining 'Arms' In the Second Amendment, published in Legal Times, November 26, 2007.

Does the Rails-to-Trails Act Effect a Taking of Property?, published in the Transportation Law Journal, Vol. 31, No. 1 (dated Fall 2003, issued April 2005.

Bleak House: The STB's Role Under NEPA, published in the Journal of Transportation Law, Logistics and Policy (Fourth Quarter 2004).

Railroad Access in the 21st Century From the Class I Railroad Perspective. Presented at the Annual Conference of the Trial Lawyers Association May 10, 2002.