Practice Areas & Industries: Beirne, Maynard & Parsons, L.L.P.

Practice/Industry Group Overview

One of the important advantages of our environmental practice is our excellent working knowledge of all of the significant environmental regulatory programs, as well as first-chair trial experience in criminal and civil, jury and non-jury cases. We thus avoid compartmentalization in the service we give our clients.

Industries we represent in environmental matters include chemical companies, oil production and refining companies, and others. We have also represented developers who own properties leased to chemical companies. We have handled cases involving the federal Clean Air Act; Clean Water Act; Resource Conservation and Recovery Act; Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act; and all of the state analogs to these federal programs, such as the Texas Clean Air Act, Texas Water Code, Texas Solid Waste Disposal Act, and others. We have successfully represented clients in Superfund litigation at both the state and federal levels. In international matters, we have advised clients looking to do business in Mexico regarding the environmental regulatory system there, as Mexican authorities typically insist on strict compliance from American companies. Following is a sample of environmental litigation we have handled recently:

• Currently representing a national heating/cooling products manufacturer in defense of a claimed violation of the Texas Water Code.
• Currently representing a Fortune 500 chemical company in a Clean Water Act citizen's suit, alleging environmental-related water permit violations.
• Currently representing several entities regarding historical groundwater contamination and responsibility for closure costs.
• Currently representing a major chemical company regarding closure of a solid waste site, which has generated environmental negligence/trespass suits.
• Currently assisting several industrial entities in state and federal Superfund matters.
• Defended a major homebuilder in a six-week trial concerning a residential subdivision built next to a Superfund toxic waste dump site.
• Represented a railroad company in a case involving recovery of remediation costs.
• Established a corporation's constitutional right to a speedy trial in an environmental criminal case.
• Represented a client in contesting claims that on-site recycling invoked the entire RCRA regulatory scheme.
• Represented national financial and real estate entities regarding environmental issues relating to past real property acquisitions.
• Represented local developers and real estate interests regarding environmental issues stemming from tenant operations or historical impacts.
• Currently handling several matters involving the Texas Voluntary Cleanup Program for site remediation.
• Represented industrial companies in ongoing investigations, at times with the prospect of criminal charges, often developing alternatives to formal enforcement.
• Negotiated pretrial diversions with the district attorney's office, which concluded the matters without verdict on the criminal charges, in return for environmentally useful projects.
• Negotiated numerous consent decrees and orders regarding environmental matters