Environmental Law

Our Environmental Law Practice encompasses the full scope of environmental issues, from litigation to regulatory compliance and enforcement actions to environmental aspects of transactions. Those transactions include mergers and acquisitions of businesses and purchases, sales and leases of real estate. We also advise lenders and borrowers on loans and other financing as well as insurance companies and insureds in connection with insurance claims and purchasing environmental insurance policies. We have special expertise in connection with the remediation of contaminated sites. We also represent environmental consulting companies and have represented New Jersey Licensed Site Remediation Professionals in dealing with the Site Professional Licensing Board.

Our range of services includes the following:

• Counselling clients with respect to compliance with site remediation requirements, including investigations, remedial strategies, schedules, access agreements, deed notices, settlements, NJDEP rules and guidance, and dealing with neighbors, regulators, municipalities, counties and LSRPs
• Counselling clients and drafting agreements relating to the allocation of responsibility and risk regarding environmental liability in connection with real estate purchases, sales, leases and redevelopment, including brownfields, mergers and acquisitions, financings and other commercial transactions
• Counselling clients in the conduct of due diligence in connection with commercial transactions
• Prosecution and defense of private contribution actions and defense of government-instituted cost-recovery actions, including litigating responsibility among successive owners and tenants at contaminated sites, cost allocations and settlements at large multi-party sites, including de minimis settlements for small contributors
• Prosecution of insurance coverage actions for cleanup of environmental contamination, including declaratory judgment actions against insurers on behalf of commercial and industrial clients seeking coverage for response costs at all types of contaminated sites
• Counselling clients with respect to permitting and other compliance with environmental regulation affecting real estate and business, including wetlands regulation, Coastal Area Facility Review Act (“CAFRA”), Pinelands and Highlands regulation and development, underground storage tank law, storm water management regulations, sewers, septic systems, hazardous waste, medical waste and solid waste regulation and claims, including recycling and contracting, and A901 applications and licenses  
• Counselling specialized businesses such as manufacturing, major facilities, hospitals, schools, child care centers and residential developments, with respect to regulatory compliance and permitting issues
• Responding to administrative notices of violation, penalty assessments, notices of deficiency, administrative directives or complaints, including from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP), New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC), United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and New Jersey Site Remediation Professional Licensing Board
• Negotiating coverage and provisions of environmental insurance policies and assisting in the administration of claims under environmental insurance policies
• Assisting clients identified by NJDEP, NYSDEC, USEPA or others, including citizens groups, as Potentially Responsible Parties pursuant to CERCLA (“Superfund”), the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, the Clean Water Act,  and other similar statutes, with respect to contamination at or from contaminated sites
• Defending toxic tort litigation and stigma damage litigation or claims, personal injury and property damage cases arising out of exposure to asbestos, chemical contaminants and other hazardous materials or proximity to contamination
• Counselling with respect to structuring, documenting and closing transactions involving solar energy and wind power
• Counseling with respect to cell and other towers
• Counseling and defending against state and federal natural resource damage claims