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Environmental, Health and Safety
/ Toxic & Environmental Torts
Randy Butterfield helps lead the firm’s Atlanta Environmental, Health and Safety Practice Group, where he concentrates his practice on environmental and toxic tort litigation as well as emergency incident response. Randy's practice focuses in particular on assisting clients in the wake of catastrophic emergency incidents, such as explosions, fires, industrial accidents, chemical releases, spills, and other environmental and industrial calamities. In that capacity, Randy is frequently called upon in the immediate aftermath of these emergencies to provide time-critical crisis management addressing a wide range of pressing concerns, including forensic investigation; workplace safety; site security and evidence preservation; regulatory disclosures, investigation, and potential enforcement; environmental remediation; internal investigations; and insurance coverage. Recent incidents on which Randy has helped lead the response have involved over $2 billion in property damages, business losses, and insurance claims; significant personal injury lawsuits; as well as enforcement actions from federal and state regulators.
In addition, Randy has handled numerous mass joinder and class action cases involving personal injury and property damage claims, both at the trial and appellate levels. Randy has played a particularly significant role in preparing and defending the defense experts—as well as deposing and critiquing plaintiffs’ experts—on a wide variety of technical topics, such as air and groundwater modeling, emission inventories, dose reconstruction, geostatistics, human health risk assessment, toxicology, epidemiology, fate and transport, remediation, property valuation, and damage assessments. Over his career, Randy’s litigation matters have involved nearly every major piece of environmental legislation as well as the entire spectrum of common law tort claims.
Randy has published several articles involving the potential application and use of federal and state regulatory standards in the toxic tort context. He has also co-authored a chapter on legal defenses in toxic tort cases in a treatise published by the American Bar Association as well as a chapter on administrative appeals published by LexisNexis. Randy served on the Environmental and Toxic Tort Section of the Atlanta Bar Association, including as Board Chair in 2018. Randy also served on Law360’s Environmental Editorial Advisory Board from 2021-2022.
Books, Articles & Presentations
• LexisNexis Practice Guide: Georgia Environmental Law, 2022 ed.
• Randy J. Butterfield, moderator, Roundtable with Georgia Office of State Administrative Hearing Judges & Litigants, Atlanta Bar Association, Toxic Tort and Environmental Law CLE, Feb. 1, 2018
• Randy J. Butterfield & Stephen A. McCullers, Raising the Class Action Certification Bar in Georgia: Georgia-Pacific Consumer Products, LP v. Ratner, Perspectives on Georgia’s Environment (State Bar of Georgia), Spring 2015, at 6-9
• Randy J. Butterfield, Recent & Recurring Issues in Toxic Tort Cases, State Bar of Georgia, Toxic Tort Litigation CLE, Mar. 2014
• J Kevin Buster & Randy J. Butterfield, Common Defenses in Toxic Tort Litigation (book chapter) (ABA 2d ed. 2013)
• Randy J. Butterfield, Note, Recovering Environmental Cleanup Costs Under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act: A Potential Solution to a Persistent Problem, 49 Vand. L. Rev. 689 (1997)
J.D., Vanderbilt University
B.A., Arizona State University
Court of Appeals of Georgia
Georgia
Supreme Court of Georgia
Texas
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia
Law Clerk, Chief Judge Robert L. Echols, U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee
American Bar Association, Section on Natural Resources, Energy and Environmental Law
Atlanta Bar Association, Environmental and Toxic Tort Section (past President)
Defense Research Institute (DRI)
State Bar of Georgia, Environmental Law Section
December 3, 2021
K&S elects 32 new partners and promotes 16 counsel across 16 cities
A midstream energy company in connection with investigations by Federal and State environmental agencies as well as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) into an explosion and fire at a natural gas processing facility resulting in catastrophic loss. Oversaw root cause investigation, coordinated responses to agency inquiries, and provided advice and counsel in connection with successful insurance recovery.
One of the world’s largest producers of methanol from natural gas as standby incident response counsel, including in connection with environmental investigations into spills and releases.
An LNG facility in connection with government investigations by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) and the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) arising out of an explosion that resulted in operational shutdown and extensive damage to piping and other equipment and in connection with insurance coverage concerns.
See more
January 24, 2024
General Counsel’s Decision Tree for Internal Investigations for the Energy Industry
August 16, 2022
Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 Doubles Down on Environmental Justice
December 3, 2021
K&S elects 32 new partners and promotes 16 counsel across 16 cities
A midstream energy company in connection with investigations by Federal and State environmental agencies as well as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) into an explosion and fire at a natural gas processing facility resulting in catastrophic loss. Oversaw root cause investigation, coordinated responses to agency inquiries, and provided advice and counsel in connection with successful insurance recovery.
One of the world’s largest producers of methanol from natural gas as standby incident response counsel, including in connection with environmental investigations into spills and releases.
An LNG facility in connection with government investigations by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) and the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) arising out of an explosion that resulted in operational shutdown and extensive damage to piping and other equipment and in connection with insurance coverage concerns.
See more
January 24, 2024
General Counsel’s Decision Tree for Internal Investigations for the Energy Industry
August 16, 2022
Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 Doubles Down on Environmental Justice
December 3, 2021
K&S elects 32 new partners and promotes 16 counsel across 16 cities
J.D., Vanderbilt University
B.A., Arizona State University
Court of Appeals of Georgia
Georgia
Supreme Court of Georgia
Texas
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia
Law Clerk, Chief Judge Robert L. Echols, U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee
American Bar Association, Section on Natural Resources, Energy and Environmental Law
Atlanta Bar Association, Environmental and Toxic Tort Section (past President)
Defense Research Institute (DRI)
State Bar of Georgia, Environmental Law Section