One component of Jackson Gilmour & Dobbs, PC’s environmental practice is helping businesses resolve regulatory and land use issues. Our representation spans a wide spectrum of environmental matters including counseling clients on which laws apply to their businesses, guiding clients during spills or releases, and negotiating with regulators to resolve enforcement and administrative actions. We also advise clients on the environmental and land use aspects of corporate and real estate transactions. Our attorneys work closely with our clients to help minimize environmental issues through proper environmental due diligence and risk management, to coordinate with other responsible parties and governmental agencies to achieve practical solutions to environmental problems within the regulatory process, and to best position our clients in the event of future litigation.
Regulatory Counseling and Response
Compliance with environmental laws and regulations requires a unique set of legal and technical abilities. The attorneys at Jackson Gilmour & Dobbs, PC have the practical knowledge and technical experience necessary to achieve our clients’ goals within the regulatory process, whether those goals are recovering remediation costs, meeting regulatory and reporting requirements, responding to spills or air emissions and agency investigations, or mitigating penalties and enforcement actions. We help our clients proactively avoid environmental issues by evaluating the need for obtaining permits, and where indicated, in securing permit coverage for air emissions, water discharges, and waste generation and disposal. Our attorneys have years of experience in regulatory compliance, reporting and cleanup of contamination, agency inspections and investigations, and similar environmental issues. These issues, when unaddressed, can often lead to penalty or enforcement actions. To that extent, our lawyers provide representation at penalty conferences, administrative hearings, and in negotiating administrative settlements. By addressing environmental incidents early and aggressively, we seek to limit our clients’ future costs and exposure. Because of our extensive environmental litigation experience, the firm’s attorneys know the issues that can later arise in litigation and use this knowledge to best position our clients within the regulatory process.
Land Use and Transaction Matters
In addition to representing clients in environmental regulatory and litigation matters, our attorneys represent clients in efforts to limit or avoid exposure to environmental problems associated with business transactions. Environmental laws and regulations assign environmental liabilities based on the ownership and operation of land or commercial and industrial facilities; thus businesses must factor environmental considerations into their transactions and operations. Because our attorneys regularly litigate environmental matters, we see firsthand the issues that could be avoided or mitigated with proper due diligence and environmental risk management. We have represented a wide variety of clients, including real estate developers, landlords and tenants, manufacturers, governmental agencies and institutional landowners, in transactions involving contaminated properties.
The attorneys at Jackson Gilmour & Dobbs, PC frequently negotiate and facilitate the purchase, sale, lease and cleanup of environmentally impacted properties. The firm’s attorneys have particular experience in property transfer issues, easement and leasehold negotiations, indemnity protections and the negotiation and administration of property cleanup and remediation agreements. We also work through the due diligence process, including evaluation of Phase I and Phase II reports, site assessments, and agency records, to ensure all appropriate inquiries are conducted and to structure transactions to account for environmental liabilities. Similarly, our attorneys work with our clients to develop and implement contractual and regulatory safeguards to environmental risk, including environmental indemnities and warranties, cleanup and remediation agreements, and environmental insurance, as well as participation in state voluntary cleanup programs and federal Brownfields initiatives.
In sum, at Jackson Gilmour & Dobbs, PC, we strive to provide our clients with environmental counsel and guidance over the life of a transaction or business that adds substantial value and reduces long-term operational costs and liabilities.