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King & Spalding’s Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS) practice consists of more than 35 lawyers worldwide, recognized for their success in handling the most complicated matters arising under environmental, health and safety laws. Our global team includes lawyers in Washington, D.C., advocating for clients’ interests on Capitol Hill; in California, assisting clients with responding to the new markets for clean energy and technology; in Houston, the traditional energy capital of the world and the gateway to oil & gas activity in the Gulf; in Atlanta, from where we can rapidly respond to incidents and crises across the Southwest and East Coast; and in Chicago, giving us access to the manufacturing hubs of the Midwest. Our team is further bolstered by the presence of lawyers in Paris, contributing knowledge of cutting-edge EU regulations and assisting our clients with worldwide operations.
Our lawyers work to understand our clients’ businesses and to navigate regulatory obstacles to achieving their business goals. Top companies turn to King & Spalding’s EHS practice because we know first-hand how agencies operate, we understand the multitude of regulations governing different industries, and we provide strategic counsel oriented to achieve practical solutions. Our group includes environmental, health, and safety lawyers with government experience, including five former EPA attorneys, and lawyers with technical backgrounds in engineering, chemistry, biology, land use, environmental policy and safety—who function at the highest level of the intersection of law and science. The EHS team collaborates seamlessly with the firm’s other teams, which collectively include over 175 former government employees.
We have considerable experience partnering with clients through strategic and cost-effective counseling, negotiations, and litigation. We help clients with permitting of new projects, compliance assurance, auditing and environmental management systems for operating facilities, state and federal enforcement matters, remediation and site closure, rulemakings, transactional support, and Superfund matters.
We work to resolve issues with regulatory agencies and other interested parties through negotiation, but we stand ready to litigate when that is required, and we have decades of experience handling EHS disputes before state and federal administrative agencies and courts, from permit appeals, rules challenges, cost recovery claims and contribution actions, to citizen suits. When our clients face an enforcement action, we have an extensive bench of former U.S. EPA and state enforcement attorneys and former federal prosecutors who are experienced on both sides of civil and criminal enforcement actions.
We have defended our clients’ interests in disputes involving a wide variety of environmental issues, including:
- Clean Air Act
- Clean Water Act
- Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA)
- Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA)
- Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA)
- Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA)
- Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA)
- Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA)
We have also defended our clients’ interests in disputes before a variety of agencies, including:
- U.S. Department of Justice
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
- U.S. Department of Transportation
- U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board
- National Transportation Safety Board
- U.S. Coast Guard
- Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE)
- National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)
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