Practice Areas & Industries: Keller and Heckman LLP

Practice/Industry Group Overview

At a minimum, companies must achieve continuous compliance with environmental laws or risk production delays, increased governmental oversight, private and government litigation, adverse media reports, monetary liability claims, and community outrage. Indeed, the continued success of many companies will rest in part on making environmental performance a competitive advantage through more imaginative and cost-effective pollution prevention and environmental management. For more than 25 years, Keller and Heckman has helped companies stay current and get ahead. Our attorneys and scientists offer industrial, corporate, and association clients practical, problem-solving advice leading to reasonable and sound environmental performance. The strength of our practice derives from knowing our clients' businesses and having a broad range of relevant environmental expertise, both scientific and legal.

Services Available

Keller and Heckman attorneys represent clients before federal, state, and local regulatory agencies in environmental law matters including:

• Clean Air Act;
• Clean Water Act;
• Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA);
• Emergency Planning and Community Right-To-Know Act (EPCRA);
• Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA);
• Hazardous Materials Transportation;
• National Environmental Policy Act;
• Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA);
• Safe Drinking Water Act; and
• Toxic Substance Control Act (TSCA);
• Product Stewardship and Lifecycle.

In coordination with our Brussels office, we counsel clients on environmental issues under the jurisdiction of the responsible ("competent") authorities in the European Union. Recent activity involves helping companies around the world prepare for REACH implementation. We also have experience dealing with Environment Canada, Health Canada, MITI in Japan, and WorkSafe Australia. In addition, we are involved in matters involving a growing list of international protocols and treaties, such as the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, the Framework Convention on Climate Change, and the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Wastes and their Disposal.

Our attorneys provide a full range of environmental services including:

• Regulatory and compliance counseling;
• Permitting (including air, water and waste);
• Rulemaking proceedings;
• Administrative hearings;
• Civil and criminal environmental litigation;
• Environmental auditing;
• Toxic and environmental release reporting;
• False environmental marketing claims;
• Land use and due diligence reviews;
• Superfund cost recovery/Insurance;
• Risk assessments;
• Environmental training;
• Drafting legislation and regulations;
• Phasing out ozone depleting chemicals;
• Reporting on regulatory and legislative actions and trends; and
• ISO 14001 and environmental management systems.

With the interdisciplinary resources to address the most complex and demanding problems, our attorneys and scientists respond quickly to our clients' concerns, providing quality legal and technical work based on sound legal and scientific analysis. Our environmental team includes attorneys with decades of practice and distinguished environmental scientists with prior EPA experience.