Practice Areas & Industries: Andrews Kurth LLP

Practice/Industry Group Overview

Andrews Kurth's environmental law practice primarily serves clients in high-risk, vigorously contested regulatory matters and litigation across the country, with experience going back to 1975.

Services Available

For example, we recently settled a $217 million joint and several cost recovery claim against one of our clients on terms more favorable than accorded through an independent allocation. In another matter, our client was acknowledged to be the largest site contributor but nevertheless received a "carve-out" settlement, leaving residual liabilities to other settling parties.

In a regulatory case, we resolved Clean Air Act violations being prosecuted under the national violator program. In 1986 we tried a groundwater contamination case involving subdivision claims in which two public water supply wells were downed. The judgment was $3,000.

In an air toxic exposure case that had already been to the U.S. Supreme Court, a client could not secure a settlement demand of less than $5 million. We were engaged as replacement counsel and tenaciously secured court rulings that eventually resulted in a $4,000 settlement.

Our lawyers have as many as 26 years of environmental experience. John Dugdale, a partner at Andrews Kurth, served Region VI as Superfund counsel and Headquarters as criminal counsel. Other lawyers have technical degrees, such as environmental engineering and biology.

Remediation & Surface Discharge

Remediation issues have been the core of this group's practice since 1975, and our innovative scientific evidentiary approaches have yielded successful outcomes for our clients. With their substantial experience in health and ecological risk, our lawyers routinely address sediment transport, riverine, estuarine and natural resource damage issues and help clients realize the benefits of merging risk reduction rules with voluntary clean-up rules.

Public Lands & Resources

Lawyers in our Environmental Practice Group are adept at coordinating the multiple agencies typically involved in public land projects and in tackling complex issues under statutes such as the Endangered Species Act and the National Historic Preservation Act. Our depth of experience ranges from developing a children's historical park on National Park Service grounds to addressing endangered species issues in California rangelands, Pacific Northwest forests and Arizona wetlands.

Hazardous & Solid Waste Management

The waste management section of our environmental practice represents an extensive list of clients in the chemical, biomedical, manufacturing, pipeline and energy industry. We routinely handle issues such as:

• Reclamation and recycling
• Government/private landfill operating agreements
• Archaeological clearances, permits, rights-of-way and easements under federal regulations
• Litigation involving contamination, personal injury and property damage suits
• Transboundary hazardous waste, particularly the Basel Convention