Environmental & Toxic Tort

Experience

Our environmental litigation attorneys combine extensive courtroom and negotiation skills with in-depth knowledge of environmental laws and regulations. We represent a diverse group of clients, including banks and lenders; parties to acquisitions and divestitures; energy producers; government and quasi-government entities; importers and exporters of chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and other goods; insurers and reinsurers; manufacturers of chemicals, paper, and other goods; real estate developers and managers; and universities and schools.

Our services in this area include: asserting and defending claims under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) and equivalent state laws, including natural resource damage claims; defending manufacturers and other businesses against environmental criminal charges; defending mass toxic tort cases (including asbestos, silica, and hearing loss); and representing parties to disputes over insurance coverage for environmental cleanup and toxic tort costs.

Whatever the subject matter, our environmental litigators have an uncanny ability to explain complex scientific and technical concepts to judges, juries, arbitrators, and mediators.

Representative Matters

• Represented the N.J. Sports and Exposition Authority in over 30 distinct, multifaceted legal challenges brought by environmental groups, affordable housing advocates, local municipalities, and commercial interests opposed to the Meadowlands Xanadu project, a proposed mixed use development consisting of a 520 room hotel, office towers, and a $2.4 billion sports, retail, and dining and entertainment center at the Meadowlands Sports Complex.
• Successfully represented in federal courts in New York and New Jersey a consortium of national banks in complex, politically sensitive and media intensive litigation arising out of a $150 million loan for the remediation and redevelopment of four abandoned landfills.
• Satisfactorily resolved parallel civil litigation, bankruptcy proceedings, and regulatory enforcement action against a manufacturing client whose property was contaminated by an adjoining property owner and a defunct lessee illegally operating under governmental license.