Our Environmental, Health & Safety team advises companies worldwide on high-stakes enforcement, investigations, and litigation matters, pairing first-hand knowledge of how agencies operate with practical, business-oriented solutions to help clients manage risk, respond to incidents, and keep projects and operations moving. 

Former Government and Enforcement Experience 

Our team includes a former Assistant Administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance, a former senior enforcement attorney at the EPA, a former Attorney-Advisor in the EPA’s Office of General Counsel, and a former water quality scientist at EPA. We also bring the perspective of a former trial attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice’s Environmental and Natural Resources Division, a former Assistant U.S. Attorney in Los Angeles, and a former engineer with the Georgia Environmental Protection Division – providing clients an integrated legal and technical understanding of environmental, health, and safety enforcement and compliance.

Deep Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act Enforcement Experience 

Our team is experienced in both civil and criminal environmental matters to help clients anticipate regulatory developments, coordinate strategy across jurisdictions, and align legal guidance with business objectives. What sets our Clean Air Act practice apart? We are particularly known for Clean Air Act enforcement defense, advising on four out of seven of the largest CAA enforcement cases, a practice focus that reflects clients’ confidence in our discretion, skill, and intimate knowledge of EPA and state environmental agencies. We also bring significant Clean Water Act experience, including serving as lead litigation counsel in one of the largest CWA enforcement actions, along with other CWA citizen suits across the country.

Global Reach 

We advise clients globally on investigations, permitting, and regulatory matters, and we are one of a very few global law firms with a full-scale incident response practice that can mobilize in the immediate aftermath of an incident, coordinate closely with regulatory authorities, and represent clients in any ensuing enforcement actions or litigation, working seamlessly with our crisis management team.

Our EHS practice is strategically anchored in the markets that shape environmental regulation and enforcement: Washington, D.C. – the center of federal regulation; Texas – the hub of the U.S. energy economy; California – the nation’s most demanding environmental regulatory landscape; and Paris – our gateway to the EU’s cutting-edge regulatory regime. This footprint, which also includes lawyers in Atlanta and Chicago, enables us to advise clients across the traditional and renewable energy, manufacturing, and technology sectors with insight into both U.S. and EU regulatory developments.

Scientific and In-House Backgrounds 

Our team includes lawyers with scientific and technical training – engineering, environmental engineering, chemistry, biology, and safety – as well as attorneys with prior in-house experience. With this background, we effectively operate at the intersection of law and science when advising on operational challenges, compliance programs, and technical fact patterns.

Full Matter Lifecycle Support 

Across the full matter lifecycle, we partner with clients on strategic, cost-effective counseling, negotiations, and litigation, including permitting of new projects; compliance assurance, auditing, and environmental management systems for operating facilities; federal and state enforcement; remediation and site closure; rulemakings; transactional support; and Superfund matters. We focus on resolving issues through negotiation, when possible, while remaining ready to litigate before federal and state courts and administrative agencies, including permit appeals, rules challenges, cost recovery and contribution actions, and citizen suits.

Trial-Ready Environmental Defense Team 

We manage litigation and complex environmental enforcement defense and disputes involving emissions, groundwater and wastewater contamination, toxic chemicals, wetlands, stormwater, and issues arising under statutes such as the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. Our market-leading environmental crimes practice is distinguished by former senior officials of the Justice Department and EPA, and more than 50 former federal prosecutors, state Attorneys General and district attorneys. 

Experience Across Agencies, Statutes, and Regulations 

Our work spans the core EHS statutes and the full range of enforcement and investigative bodies that shape environmental and workplace safety outcomes, including:

Key U.S. statutes and regulations: CAA, CWA, TSCA, RCRA, CERCLA, EPCRA, FIFRA, Hazardous Materials Transportation Act, NEPA, OSHA, Prop 65, and Safe Drinking Water Act

Key European statutes and regulations: Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD); Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD); European Union Battery Regulation (EUBR); European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR); and Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH)

U.S. Agencies and administrations: EPA; DOJ; DOT; Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board; National Transportation Safety Board; Coast Guard; Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE); National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA); and Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA)