Of Note

Saul Ewing LLP does environmental due diligence for investor interested in Marcellus Shale exploration

In May 2009, members of Saul Ewing's Environment and Natural Resources Practice Group, working with lead counsel at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, provided environmental due diligence to global private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR) as it considered.

Saul Ewing LLP provides environmental law counsel at the local, state and federal levels. From complete guidance on Superfund compliance and managing model EPA projects to securing tax abatement status and defending clients in regulatory administrative actions, our attorneys represent:

• Energy companies
• Landowners
• Municipalities
• Residents
• Waste management companies
• Power companies
• Property owners, developers
• Potentially responsible parties (PRP)

Clients include large and small industrial operations, owners and operators of petroleum facilities, municipal authorities, defendants in toxic tort cases, owners of natural resources, particularly coal, non-coal minerals, and gas, pipeline companies, trade associations and companies in the waste industry. We also represent buyers and sellers of brownfield properties.

Our approach
We advise clients on environmental regulatory and transactional matters, as well as litigation challenges. Our attorneys collaborate with colleagues in multiple practice areas including tax, real estate, corporate and litigation to help lead and manage projects from concept through permitting. This includes public hearings and subsequent regulatory challenges into cleanup activity. We work closely with government regulators and consultants to prevent obstacles and guide projects to successful completion.

Our leadership 

Our Environment and Natural Resources Practice is populated with numerous attorneys who have received recognition from Best Lawyers, Chambers USA, Super Lawyers, Corporate Counsel and New York Magazine. Additionally, prior to joining our firm, several members of the practice served in government regulatory agencies.

Our attorneys' civic and professional affiliations include current and notable leadership positions with: the New Jersey Water Supply Authority, environmental law sections of the Maryland and Pennsylvania bar associations, Natural Resources Law Section of American Bar Association and Two Rivers Water Reclamation Authority.

Experience

• Won a $2.1 million remediation judgment for a residential village, a Northern New Jersey location built on the site of a former refinery, against the world's leading petroleum group. Using expert testimony, we proved contaminant dumping occurred more than 60 years ago.
• Represented a client and management against various claims of fraud and breach of fiduciary duty relating to the formation and dissolution of a joint venture in the hazardous waste management business.
• Defended an energy client in a federal Superfund case involving cost recovery claims related to the cleanup of 18 former manufactured gas plants located throughout New York State. 
• Negotiated an option for a regulated client for development of a multibillion dollar waste disposal facility, securing highly controversial tax abatement status for abutting property before three public bodies under pressing time constraints.
• Represented an international manufacturer of industrial equipment in a five-month trial in the New York Supreme Court, Commercial Part Division, involving breach of contract claims related to environmental representations and warranties.
• Providing advice and counsel to minimize a client’s exposure in an EPA-model redevelopment project involving a former Allied Chrome plant, which produced chrome for over 100 years on a prime 50-acre peninsula jutting into Baltimore’s Harbor.
• Helped client defeat a series of challenges to an awarded major municipal services contract; obtained dismissal of first challenge in federal court; second challenge in Court of Common Pleas; and won appeal in Commonwealth Court.
• Defended construction clients against hundreds of alleged criminal violations of Pennsylvania's blasting laws.
• Negotiated an agreement under the 1995 Land Recycling and Environmental Remediation Standards Act (Act 2) on behalf of our client, the Philadelphia Shipyard Development Corporation (PSDC).
• Representing regional developer in public/private redevelopment of the shuttered 100-acre factory former NVF site in Yorklyn, DE. Deal required bankruptcy approval and a negotiated deal with the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control.
• Litigated with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in an extremely significant regulatory takings case relating to the taking of the clients' mineral rights.
• Negotiated successfully a settlement of CERCLA, New Jersey Spill Act, and New Jersey Solid Waste Management Act claims arising from a former industrial waste landfill in Northern New Jersey. In this high-profile Superfund cost-recovery case, our client was targeted by all of the other parties as the lead responsible party and faced significant liability. We secured a favorable settlement for the client in terms of dollars and the ability to manage-down future cleanup liability.