Practice Areas & Industries: Husch Blackwell Sanders LLP

Practice/Industry Group Overview

Our Group offers a distinctive opportunity to provide clients with the highest quality environmental representation in an efficient, cost effective manner. Our environmental attorneys include former practitioners with the United States Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Justice, and several state agencies. A number of our attorneys, including three former Monsanto Company senior environmental attorneys and a former Monsanto environmental engineer, have been involved in environmental management and litigation for well over twenty-five years. As a result of our broad experience, many of our clients have retained us to act as national environmental counsel. Our attorneys are well respected within the regulated community and the national environmental bar and are regularly recognized in peer-selected reviews as among the most capable and effective practitioners in the field.

Services Available

We have significant expertise in many environmental areas. We focus our efforts on matters where our experience can make us efficient and the best option for our clients. No other firm has a better problem solving capability in delivering the desired result at a reasonable rate. We specialize in a broad spectrum of environmental scenarios, including:

• Environmental compliance counseling, planning and permitting;
• Development and implementation of Environmental Management Systems;
• Environmental litigation, including defense of enforcement actions;
• Hazardous waste contamination cleanups;
• Brownfields redevelopment;
• Interstate River Litigation involving multi-state and multi-jurisdictional conflicts;
• Acquiring, perfecting, and transferring water rights throughout the United States on behalf of municipal, industrial and governmental clients;
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• Clean Water Act compliance, enforcement defense and litigation;
• National Environmental Policy Act compliance and litigation;
• Endangered Species Act compliance and litigation;
• Environmental Due Diligence and All Appropriate Inquiry;
• CERCLA litigation / RCRA compliance;
• OSHA, MSHA compliance and litigation;
• Natural resources mitigation; and
• Environmental due diligence and liability management related to various corporate, commercial and real estate transactions.

We have a national environmental litigation practice which covers pipeline ruptures, some 200 Superfund sites, insurance coverage, civil and criminal enforcement, and hazardous waste incineration. We have major litigation matters for companies in the oil, chemical, mining, power, manufacturing and transportation industries.

Our environmental attorneys provide advice to clients on regulatory compliance, planning and permitting in over 40 states, including representation in administrative proceedings. We support these counseling services with multi-media awareness and compliance training. We routinely provide compliance counseling in the requirements of federal and state environmental laws, including:

• The Clean Air Act;
• The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act;
• The Clean Water Act;
• The Toxic Substances Control Act;
• The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act;
• The Endangered Species Act;
• The Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act;
• The Occupational Safety and Health Act; and
• The Mine Safety and Health Act.

Our Group assists municipal and industrial clients in acquiring, securing and protecting long-term water supplies and water rights. We aid clients in understanding impacts of federal and state laws on water management and property rights. Our attorneys represent states and other governmental (and quasi-governmental) entities in complex, interstate disputes, negotiations and litigation involving the nation’s rivers and interstate waterways across America.

In addition, our team regularly assumes responsibility for environmental due diligence and guidance in liability management related to commercial and real estate transactions, including:

• Assessing and managing environmental risks and liabilities associated with proposed business and corporate transactions;
• Negotiating favorable contract terms to protect clients from unforeseen environmental problems before they develop; and
• Providing comprehensive and cost-effective suggestions for minimizing potential environmental liability.

Our attorneys are active members and leaders in a broad number of leading professional organizations, state and local committees, planning boards, and task forces dealing with key environmental issues, allowing our attorneys to stay abreast of the latest developments in this field.