Practice Areas & Industries: Holme Roberts & Owen LLP

Practice/Industry Group Overview

Holme Roberts & Owen LLP (HRO) has developed one of the most sophisticated environmental law and toxic tort practices in the nation. The practice began in the 1970s with just a few lawyers serving the occasional environmental needs of our local natural resource clients. Since then, it has grown steadily to the point that, today, it consists of approximately 20 lawyers and 15 paralegals and information specialists who practice environmental law full-time on behalf of a wide array of clients around the country and the world.

Our clients range from large companies in the energy, aerospace, chemical, communications, manufacturing and transportation businesses to small or local businesses. We regularly represent governmental entities, individuals, and pro bono causes as well. We have in our ranks lawyers with substantial experience in all of the environmental statutes and regulatory programs that clients are likely to encounter, including the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, CERCLA or Superfund, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, the Occupational Safety and Health Act, the National Environmental Policy Act and others. We have applied this collective learning and experience successfully in a host of different contexts, including compliance counseling, business transactions, governmental enforcement actions, private litigation and trials.

Being part of a large, experienced law firm, we are able to draw upon the services of other lawyers in the firm when, as frequently is the case, issues arise in our cases requiring knowledge in other areas, such as natural resource, real property, criminal, land use, tax and corporate law. We also have developed an extensive network of some of the best consultants and experts in the many scientific disciplines involved in the environmental area.

Although our offices are located mainly in the Rocky Mountain region, we have successfully handled matters in most of the United States, as well as a number of foreign jurisdictions. Our clients, however, enjoy our Rocky Mountain rates, which typically are lower than those of comparable firms in other major metropolitan areas.

Unlike many environmental practices whose lawyers pass their matters onto the firm's litigators when they enter an adversarial mode, our group has consciously combined the two functions of counseling and litigation, which we believe enhances the value we can bring to clients. When counseling on compliance or business matters, for example, we can identify from firsthand litigation experience what environmental disputes are likely to arise and their probable litigated outcome, and thus better advise the client on how to avoid or provide for those disputes. By the same token, when litigating an environmental dispute, our lawyers come to the case with a rock-solid foundation in the substantive laws and sciences involved, making them much more effective and efficient in handling the litigation.

Above all, the HRO environmental practice group prides itself in the delivery of the highest quality legal services in a timely and cost-effective manner, and in the success we have had helping clients reach their goal, whether that be closing a business deal, reaching a favorable settlement, or winning at trial.

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Regulatory Compliance and Permitting

A prevention-oriented approach to environmental compliance is a critical element of the environmental team practice.

The group is sophisticated in compliance issues under all of the environmental statutes, including those regulating wetlands, underground and surface waters, air, the workplace, endangered species, asbestos, solid and hazardous waste, oil pollution and toxic substances. We have counseled clients on complex compliance issues in each of these areas, prepared materials for in-house counsel and corporate environmental managers, and presented seminars on various topics to corporate counsel and managers.

The group has decades of experience working with regulatory agencies in obtaining permits for manufacturing and other facilities, including air, NPDES, wetlands, radioactive materials, mining waste and reclamation, and hazardous waste permits. With our assistance, clients have obtained permits for industrial, transportation, oil and gas, hazardous waste disposal, mining, geothermal, oil shale, aviation and aerospace system, railroad, engineering and construction, petroleum refinery, and mining and milling facilities.

We also have the experience and resources to react quickly in advising clients during emergency situations, such as spill reporting and response requirements. We have developed spill reporting and emergency response procedures for clients addressing requirements across the country.

Our environmental attorneys have extensive experience with the various self-disclosure laws and with environmental compliance audits. They are also skilled in working with enforcement agencies in resolving civil and criminal violations and in litigating those matters that cannot be resolved.

Members of the group frequently lecture on compliance with various environmental statutes and programs and have written the Colorado Environmental Law Handbook (Government Institutes, Inc.) and the RCRA Compliance Handbook (Executive Enterprises Publications Co., Inc.).

The group includes information-specialists, who are highly experienced in seeking information from environmental agencies and in working with the internet and the vast array of databases in obtaining documents and information relevant to compliance issues. These specialists assist in meeting our goal of providing clients with cost-effective, high quality services.

The team has extensive experience in representing buyers, sellers, lessors, lessees, underwriters, investors, lenders and borrowers in addressing environmental issues in transactions. We have represented a wide spectrum of industries in this area, including biotechnology, railroads, electronic manufacturing, mining, banking, high technology, petroleum, telecommunications, real estate development, and heavy construction. Our clients include companies that purchase distressed Brownfields properties as part of their core business. We are focused on providing the most cost-effective service for all sizes and complexity of transactions, whether involving one asset or stock purchases and mergers involving hundreds of manufacturing facilities throughout the world.

The team has familiarity with the vast array of tools available to protect parties from environmental liabilities in transactions, including working with consultants in the performance of due diligence and audits, negotiating indemnities and representations and warranties, corporate structuring, working with state environmental agencies and state Brownfields legislation throughout the country, negotiating with the federal Environmental Protection Agency in obtaining prospective purchaser agreements, ensuring that purchasers and sellers satisfy federal statutory requirements for protection, and using environmental insurance to address environmental risks. We were involved with several of the initial approvals of voluntary clean up plans in the State of Colorado. We also have experience litigating contractual disputes in the environmental arena.

The group coordinates with other areas of the firm that provide knowledge in the tax aspects of environmental transactions and in bankruptcy issues, such as foreclosure and work out issues.

Attorneys at HRO continually write and speak at seminars throughout the country on transactional issues. The firm is also the consultant for the Colorado Chapter for Brownfields Law and Practice (Matthew Bender & Co., Inc.).

The environmental group has handled sites involved with Superfund and hazardous waste litigation throughout the country. These sites include the DePue site in Illinois, the Hardage site in Oklahoma, the Stringfellow, Purity Oil, Operating Industries and San Fernando Valley sites in California, the Bunker Hill Superfund and Pacific Hide and Fur sites in Idaho, the South Eighth Street Landfill site in West Memphis, Arkansas, the Lowry Landfill, the California Gulch, and Summitville sites in Colorado, the Keystone site in Pennsylvania and the Brio and French Limited sites in Texas and handled four of the original seven Colorado Superfund response cost and natural resource damage actions.

The group represents clients in toxic tort, property damages and insurance coverage litigation related to liability for hazardous waste and for exposure to hazardous and toxic substances, including those from chemical manufacturing, petroleum refining, railroads, aerospace industries, mining and milling, smelting and other methods of ore handling and processing. The group has defeated class certification in several cases and obtained the first federal circuit court ruling that medical monitoring is not recoverable under CERCLA. It currently is representing a client in defense of toxic tort claims brought by 800 residents.

HRO attorneys represent manufacturing, industrial, mining, heavy construction, petroleum, railroad, high technology and other clients in a wide spectrum of OSHA compliance and enforcement matters. Recent experience includes defense of an asbestos enforcement action, the lockout/tagout standard, hazardous waste and emergency response standard, hazard communication standard, personnel protective equipment, confined spaces, OSHA's proposed ergonomic standard, whistle blower issues (Section 11 (c)), record keeping, enforcement issues including inspections (search warrant issues), and OSHRC appeals. We have conducted OSHA audits of manufacturing plants to assist in determining the state of compliance. HRO's approach to OSHA is one described as "recognition and prevention."