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Services Available
The Team’s core industry skills are focused in the following practice areas:
ENVIRONMENTAL COMPLIANCE AND PERMITTING
The Natural Resources & Manufacturing Industries Team has extensive experience in all aspects of compliance risk management, permitting and litigation of environmental laws.
Specific topic expertise includes:
- Specific topic expertise includes:
- Compliance counseling and preventative law
- Compliance management systems reviews
- Enforcement and criminal defense
- In-house investigations and auditing
Permitting
- Mandatory and voluntary reporting
Transactional due diligence
- Management and employee training
Site investigations and remediation
- Suspension and debarment
In-depth knowledge of the following federal, state and local laws affecting air, water, hazardous and toxic substances guides the team’s approach.
CLEAN AIR ACT (CAA) AREAS OF EMPHASIS
- Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) and New Source Review (NSR) permitting
- Defense of PSD/NSR enforcement at federal, state and local levels
- Title V permitting and certifications
- New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) permitting and defense
- Notice of Construction (NOC) permitting and defense
- Risk Management Plan (RMP) compliance
- Noise and odor compliance
CLEAN WATER ACT (CWA) AREAS OF EMPHASIS
- National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permitting
- Pretreatment permitting
- Storm water permitting
- Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) compliance
- Oil Pollution Act (OPA) compliance
- Groundwater contamination remediation
- Shoreline management
- Defense of CWA enforcement actions
- Wetlands
- Water rights
COMPREHENSIVE ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSE, COMPENSATION AND LIABILITY ACT (CERCLA OR SUPERFUND) AND STATE COUNTERPARTS
- Hazardous and toxic waste
- Site investigation and remediation
- Potentially responsible party (PRP) identification and defense
- PRP liability negotiation
- Brownfield development
- Insurance coverage prosecution
HAZARDOUS AND TOXIC WASTE UNDER THE RESOURCE CONSERVATION AND RECOVERY ACT (RCRA) AND STATE COUNTERPARTS
- Permitting
- Enforcement defense
- Site investigation and remediation
ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT (ESA)
- Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act (EPCRA)
- Sections 311, 312 and 313 (SARA Title III) compliance and reporting
TOXICS SUBSTANCES CONTROL ACT (TSCA)
- PCBs compliance
- Pre-manufacturing Notification (PMN) under TSCA
- Human health risk reporting
FEDERAL WILDLIFE PROTECTION LAWS
- Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA)
- Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act (BGEPA)
NATIONAL HISTORIC PRESERVATION ACT (NHPA)
- Section 106 Process
- Federal Communications Commission (FCC) National Programmatic Agreement
- Tribal Consultation
COMPLIANCE MANAGEMENT AND GOVERNMENT INVESTIGATIONS
- Development and implementation of comprehensive compliance management systems (CMS) Audit
- Training for management and employees
- Counseling and litigation expertise to companies involved in major governmental investigations
- In-house investigations
- Response to search warrants and subpoenas
- Overseeing discovery responses
- Preparing and debriefing experts and grand jury witnesses
- Negotiating settlements and overseeing outside counsel
- Voluntary disclosure of noncompliance
FOREST PRACTICES
One-third of the United States, or 730 million acres, is covered with trees. In Washington State, approximately 4.6 million acres of land are owned by industrial forest products companies, and another 3.2 million acres are privately owned. The Washington State Legislature declared the state’s forest land resources among the most valuable resources in the state. Yet to transform those assets into a sustainable forest products industry is often a significant challenge—one that requires deep knowledge of the law, understanding of best forest practices, and the ability to balance the nuances of increasingly complex regulations with the goals of the forester.
Forest practice regulation in Washington has grown exponentially over the last 15 years, spurred on by adoption of the Growth Management Act in 1990, the listing of the northern spotted owl under the Endangered Species Act, and the listing of numerous salmon species under the Endangered Species Act.
The Natural Resources & Manufacturing Industries Team includes some of the leading forestry lawyers in the state of Washington. They have helped clients with:
- Challenges to the validity of forest practices rules
- Defending and prosecuting appeals to the Forest Practices Appeals Board
- Resolving wildlife and fisheries conflicts with forest practices
- Negotiating and defending tribal challenges to forest practices
- Resolving issues related to the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act as they affect forest practices
- Due diligence on forest land purchase and sales
LAND USE AND GROWTH MANAGEMENT
The area of land use and property development is a complex web of overlapping statutory, regulatory and municipal code provisions. Navigating this web requires a comprehensive understanding of development requirements, combined with a practical appreciation for the project’s goals. The Natural Resources & Manufacturing Industries Team has a unique blend of skills to assist clients, negotiate entitlements with local, state and federal permit agencies, negotiating amendments to regulations where needed to achieve the client’s objectives, and when necessary defend those changes in plans and regulations and those permits against environmental challengers. Specific expertise includes:
- Growth Management and particularly the location of industrial and resource lands
- Brownfield re-development
- SEPA and NEPA compliance
- Working with local officials to secure permits and entitlements
- Representing clients’ interests in the drafting and revision of comprehensive plans, zoning regulations and other development regulations.
- Permitting of Shorelines, Wetlands, and other Ecologically Sensitive Areas
- Transferable Development Rights and Mitigation Banking
- Water Rights
- Regulatory Takings and Inverse Condemnation
- Historic Preservation
- Litigation before the Growth Management Hearings Board, the Shorelines Hearings Board, and in the Courts to defend clients’ permits and entitlements
ANTI-TRUST
The Natural Resources & Manufacturing Industries Team offers a full range of antitrust services to businesses in the natural resource and manufacturing industries. The team has extensive experience in antitrust business counseling, pre-litigation evaluation of antitrust claims, Hart-Scott-Rodino filings, negotiating with government antitrust enforcement agencies, and antitrust litigation.
CORPORATE GOVERNANCE, MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS
The Natural Resources & Manufacturing Industries Team’s business lawyers assist public and private companies on a variety of corporate and securities matters, including:
- Strategic planning and corporate governance
- Entity formations and reorganizations
- Mergers and acquisitions
- Public and private securities offerings
- 1934 Securities Act compliance
- Stock repurchases, including issuer tender offers
- Executive compensation, including employment agreements, change in control/severance arrangements and stock plans
- Commercial finance and project finance
- Complex regulatory matters
- General contract drafting and review
ENVIRONMENTAL LABOR AND EMPLOYMENT
Graham & Dunn's Labor & Employment attorneys represent management of large and small businesses in a full range of employment and labor matters including: traditional union organizing, union contract and de-unionization issues; employment discrimination issues in hiring, pay, work environment, promotion, layoff or termination; affirmative action compliance; individual employment contract matters; defamation, privacy, drug testing issues; and wrongful discharge lawsuits. The Labor and Employment attorneys stress preventive measures of drafting and administering progressive personnel policies to minimize the likelihood of litigation. When litigation cannot be avoided, then an aggressive, cost-effective approach is utilized to resolve cases favorably.
ENVIRONMENTAL REAL ESTATE
Natural resource and manufacturing industries rely on land, and they buy and sell it in sometimes prodigious amounts. The real estate lawyers in the Natural Resources & Manufacturing Industries Team negotiate real estate purchase and sale agreements, resolve title and access questions and get real estate transactions to closing, be it 5 acres for a field office site, 200 acres for a mill site or 150,000 acres of forest land.
INSURANCE
The Natural Resources & Manufacturing Industries Team represents large and small corporations on a variety of insurance matters and has successfully prosecuted claims against professional liability, general liability and property insurers. The team has recovered substantial sums for clients for property losses, business interruption claims, environmental losses, construction defects, directors and officers claims and third party casualty and employment claims. Over the years, the team has worked with almost all of the industry’s coverage forms and, in addition to prosecuting claims against insurers, can provide quick and practical coverage advice, as well as formal coverage opinions.
BUSINESS LITIGATION
CONSTRUCTION
The Natural Resources & Manufacturing Industries Team has a penchant for developing creative and cost-effective solutions which create value for its clients. One of the attorneys on the Team is a licensed professional engineer who has managed the design and construction of public and private projects. He has first-hand knowledge of project design (from conceptual design through final plans and specifications), value engineering, competitive bidding, project scheduling, quality and cost control, and project start-up and commissioning.
The Natural Resources & Manufacturing Industries Team knows the construction industry from a nuts and bolts standpoint—representing a level of knowledge and skill that very few people can equal.
Specific topic expertise includes:
General Business
- Selection of the appropriate project delivery system, whether design-build, design-bid-build, GC/CM, or some variation of these, taking into consideration cost, quality, project delivery time and the allocation of risks
- Selection of the appropriate form of contract, whether fixed price, cost reimbursable, guaranteed maximum price, or some variation of these. We have worked with all of the industry’s standard contract forms, including AIA, AGC, and EJCDC forms
- Assisting clients and their insurance brokers in evaluating project insurance requirements to ensure that there is sufficient coverage for general and professional liability risks as well as risk of property loss during construction
- Selection of the appropriate form of performance and payment bonds, or other form of guarantee of project performance, and negotiating and drafting terms of contract warranties and guarantees to ensure that performance and quality objectives are met
Dispute Resolution
- Architect and engineer liability for defective design and construction management
- Contractor delay and disruption claims, termination for default, back charges, change orders, bidding and award disputes, labor disputes, lost productivity, inefficiencies, acceleration, construction failures, and claims for breach of contract warranties and guarantees
- Construction safety and personal injury claims
- Insurance coverage for property damage, personal injury, and construction defect claims
- WISHA and OSHA Surety claims
- Mechanics’ liens and Miller Act claims
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