Cynthia Brooks

Cynthia D. Brooks serves Of Counsel at Dry Creek Law Firm and joined the firm at its inception in July 2025. Her practice focuses on environmental regulatory compliance, governmental relations, real estate and property transactions (including due diligence and corporate risk management), contracts, toxic tort and environmental litigation, and complex multi-party negotiations. Prior to joining Dry Creek, she worked as Senior Counsel with the Doney Crowley P.C. law firm in Helena for seven years.  

Before joining Doney Crowley, Brooks was Chief Remediation Counsel for the State of Montana Department of Environmental Quality, where she supervised a staff of attorneys charged with enforcing Montana's environmental remediation laws. She also served as the State’s senior Superfund attorney for over 20 years; career highlights include the successful trial and appeal to the Montana Supreme Court of liability for a $35 million cleanup at a site near Kalispell; the successful defense of the State in toxic tort and property devaluation cases; and representation of the State in the Asarco, LLC bankruptcy, resulting in total payments to the governments and related trusts of around $1.794 billion, the largest Superfund recovery in history. Brooks also has extensive experience in Brownfields redevelopment, governmental relations, and multi-million-dollar contracts. She received 18 performance awards during her tenure with the State.

Before working for the State, Brooks was in private practice in Missoula with the law firm of Datsopoulos, MacDonald, and Lind P.C. and also clerked for the Montana Supreme Court.

Brooks holds a bachelor’s degree in finance and economics, with honors, from the University of Montana and graduated with honors from the University of Montana School of Law in 1992 where she also served on the Editorial Board for the Montana Law Review. She is a fourth generation Montanan.