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Services Available
Environment
We help business and individual clients when the worlds of environmental regulatory compliance and environmental litigation collide. Our attorneys fully understand that this collision can mean the risk of significant financial or property loss, deteriorated relations with communities, and civil and criminal sanctions for any company. Whether negotiating with regulatory agencies over a release of hazardous materials, responding to environmental class-action lawsuits or determining potential Superfund liability, we give our clients commonsense advice that avoids fruitless and costly controversy. If litigation is unavoidable, Manatt has a nationwide reputation for the ability of our trial-experienced attorneys to design and implement a winning strategy.
We help clients with a multifaceted range of environmental issues that encompass virtually every major industry and have a huge impact on everyday operation, such as:
§ Hazardous waste disposal and Superfund liability;
§ Land use and development;
§ Natural resource exploration and exploitation;
§ RCRA, CERCLA and their effect on property values;
§ Management of endangered species and coastal resources;
§ Use of pesticides and insecticides;
§ Air-quality issues on the local, state and federal level; and
§ Environmental due diligence in financial transactions.
Manatt’s environmental lawyers have the practical experience to give sound counsel on these and many other concerns. Members of our team have worked for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Department of the Interior, have held senior environmental regulatory positions in California and other state governments, and have headed local planning commissions. We are skillful and effective at representing clients in administrative proceedings before these regulatory authorities, and address environmental issues on behalf of our clients before committees of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, and state legislatures and regulatory agencies. Using Manatt’s nationwide litigation capability, we act as counsel for plaintiffs and defendants—individual property owners and multinational corporations—in numerous environmental contamination cases, environmental class actions, chemical exposure cases, regulatory actions, and Proposition 65 actions. Following is a more detailed look at the ways we can help you.
Environmental Regulatory Compliance
Environmental compliance is mandatory for any business in the current regulatory climate of aggressive enforcement and sanctions for noncompliance. At Manatt we work to give our clients compliance programs that have a reasonable cost and are consistent with good business practices. We are experienced in negotiating and resolving federal, state and local enforcement actions and responding to citizen groups’ and class-action complaints. Working with a team of business, technical and public relations experts, we address compliance matters ranging from regulated emissions to hazardous material management, disposal, transportation and treatment. We guide clients through the emerging local, state, national and international standards for environmental management and assist concerned businesses with pollution prevention and recycling.
Litigation
When environmental compliance becomes environmental controversy, Manatt litigators are trial-experienced counsel and vigorous advocates in any forum. We represent clients ranging from small property owners to large international corporations involved in federal multidistrict litigation, as well as developers, financial institutions, energy and chemical companies, manufacturers, construction contractors and environmental consulting firms. Our lawyers have the technical skills to handle civil and criminal trials, alternative dispute resolution, and aggressive defense when government agencies exceed their authority or unreasonably obstruct legitimate projects. Because of our depth of courtroom experience, our trial preparation and strategy are structured equally well for effective settlement or a successful judgment.
We represent clients in state and federal courts concerning a wide variety of environmental and land use disputes, including Superfund, RCRA, cost recovery and cleanup of contaminated properties, cost allocation, toxic torts, the Clean Air Act, Natural Resource Damage Claims, Proposition 65 actions and eminent domain claims. Our attorneys understand that the cost of remediating environmental contamination or the exercise of eminent domain by government can have a significant negative financial impact on landowners, so we focus on both the legal and business issues to represent our clients in a dispute.
Transactional Due Diligence and Liability Allocations
We know that mergers, acquisitions, lending/financing and real estate ventures all raise environmental concerns. Our lawyers have honed their skills at pretransactional due diligence and assessment and can evaluate the existence of prior or current business location operations, on-site and off-site disposal practices, and potential liability to or from adjacent property owners. Our ability to identify environmental issues enables us to minimize their impact on our clients’ transactions. Working closely with Manatt’s corporate real estate and finance lawyers, we weigh environmental due diligence investigations against the requirements and goals of a transaction to help the client achieve their strategic objectives while protecting against and allocating risk and liability.
Environmental Remediation and Restoration Projects
Our environmental lawyers team with geotechnical engineers, hydrogeologists, chemists, regulatory agencies and other legal counsel to apply sophisticated techniques that restore contaminated sites. We work with these specialists to evaluate the nature and extent of the contamination, estimate the cost of remediation, and develop a cost-effective, environmentally sound response within the right legal framework. This may include representing clients on a multiparty Superfund committee or in negotiations securing environmental insurance or settlement with regulatory agencies on a voluntary cleanup.
We also work with clients in connection with Brownfield projects. Many commercial and industrial areas include contaminated properties that would regain value if restored and remediated. In such situations we help our clients evaluate the nature and extent of the contamination, estimate the cost of remediation, and define the potential return from an investment in cleanup. If the project makes sound business sense, we coordinate it with developers, environmental consultants, financing institutions, insurance providers, regulatory agencies and other legal counsel, all within a proper legal strategy that provides the greatest return and protection.
Land Use Planning and Project Development
Manatt’s land use attorneys represent private and public landholders and developers before city councils, county boards, state planning commissions and other local, state and federal administrative bodies. Our clients have included motion picture studios, manufacturers, developers, schools and municipal entities. We help them obtain permits and other entitlements, including general plan amendments, specific plans, zone changes, environmental compliance documentation, tract maps and development agreements. If projects hit a snag, we vigorously represent our clients in defense of project approvals and in actions challenging adverse administrative actions.
Legislative and Regulatory Development
Environmental regulations constantly change. We monitor and affect legislative and regulatory developments to help our clients keep pace and actively protect and advance their interests by advocacy in Washington, D.C. and in state capitals.
Energy and Natural Resources
Manatt energy and natural resources attorneys have a well-deserved reputation for a preeminent, comprehensive practice focusing on the global energy industry. Although we represent private- and public-sector energy consumers on a variety of issues, our primary focus is on companies that develop, produce, market, transport and process energy resources. We advise them on all key aspects of industry operations, including:
§ Business problem analysis and solution;
§ Power generation and gas sales agreements;
§ Transmission, transportation and distribution agreements;
§ Community relations;
§ Clean energy alternatives;
§ Environmental compliance, licensing and due diligence;
§ Interstate and international commerce;
§ Litigation before state and federal regulatory bodies and courts;
§ Policy and political planning;
§ Project finance and development; and
§ Regulatory and land use compliance and advocacy, interstate and international commerce.
Manatt energy attorneys have in-depth experience in the industry. Drawing from experience in elective offices, legislative staff positions and appointive positions at various government agencies, we are able advocates of energy-client interests before key energy policy-makers in the U.S. and other countries. Our credentials at the federal level include work at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and as congressional liaison to the FERC. And our team has a solid background in the important California regulatory infrastructure, including service in the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) and as energy counsel to the State Assembly’s Energy Cost and Availability Committee and to the City of Los Angeles. A number of our attorneys have worked for energy companies in their careers, including for the nation’s largest natural gas distribution company and for a major Latin-American developer of power plants.
In support of our energy team, Manatt is recognized as a premier firm in government relations and policy development activities that are crucial to energy and natural resources clients. From our offices in Washington, D.C. and major state capitals, we are advocates for clients in legislative and administrative hearings, rulemaking and regulatory proceedings, and legislative lobbying and analysis. We also facilitate strategic planning, government contracts, and permits and entitlements. In addition to helping clients navigate the regulatory maze, we work to anticipate, shape and leverage the dynamic body of law regulating the energy industry.
Our clients cover the full spectrum of the industry, including natural gas producers and processors, oil producers, refiners, oil products and natural gas pipelines and distributors, and electric power generators and utilities. We are also advocates for large consumers of gas, electricity and refined products, as well as municipal interests, trade associations, and for-profit and nonprofit organizations (including hospitals and schools) in energy matters. We counsel clients with diverse interests: industry proponents and opponents, buyers and sellers, applicants and intervenors. Moreover, our interdisciplinary energy practice draws on Manatt’s firmwide resources in environmental law, corporate finance, eminent domain, lending and financial services, tax, real estate and international trade. That gives us the resources for comprehensive coverage of specialized industry issues and operations.
Regulation
The energy industry operates within a complex web of international, federal and state regulations, and Manatt is skilled at advocacy in every part of it. We handle a variety of matters before the U.S. Department of Energy, ranging from the importation of natural gas and electricity to appliance standards. On pricing issues we have represented clients in nearly all major FERC rate or certificate proceedings involving Western interstate natural gas pipelines since 1977, and in all major FERC and CPUC matters concerning electric and natural gas restructuring and deregulation since 1981. Our attorneys also prepare electric-generating facility siting applications, and secure related licenses and permits, at the California Energy Commission as well as appearing before the National Energy Board of Canada and three provincial energy-regulating agencies. In corporate matters we have helped energy holding companies apply for exemption and redefinition of Securities and Exchange Commission regulation under the Public Utilities Holding Company Act.
Distribution
A specialized area of regulatory complexity involves the distribution of energy products and electric power. Manatt attorneys represent clients in numerous matters associated with the rules, regulations and business issues involving the distribution of natural gas and electricity at the local level. We have also served as advocates for public and private interests in wholesale energy purchases and transportation/transmission arrangements. Petroleum distribution has its own regulatory framework, and we counsel shippers in complex multiparty oil pipeline cases before the FERC and CPUC.
Transactions
Energy industry companies are among the most capital-intensive businesses in the world, and Manatt attorneys assist them with every major type of transaction. From financing to acquisitions to special due diligence issues, we handle the details of deals involving:
§ The development, purchase and sale of natural gas, pipeline construction and electric power generation within the United States and between U.S. and Mexican interests and U.S. and Canadian interests;
§ Negotiating and preparing agreements to purchase natural gas, refined products and electricity, reserve transmission and pipeline capacity, and develop and install alternative energy sources;
§ Project finance transactions on behalf of energy companies and financial institutions in combined cycle, cogeneration, geothermal, coal and hydro projects;
§ Proposed mergers of petroleum refiners and marketers and natural gas and electric distribution companies in both the U.S. and Canada, including extensive litigation and environmental due diligence; and
§ Various contractual arrangements, including negotiating financing of and contracts for sales by a petroleum coker and the sales contract (plus associated environmental cleanup) for a mothballed petroleum refinery.
Natural Gas
Our attorneys have managed commercial negotiations, litigation and administrative issues concerning the production, processing and sale of natural gas and associated products from producing areas throughout the central and western U.S. and Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin.
We represent clients in nontraditional natural gas supply matters, including the Alaska Natural Gas Transportation System and the prebuild portions from Canada and coal gasification and biomass/landfill power generation. The firm’s professionals also have an in-depth and extensive background in all elements of the liquefied natural gas market.
Petroleum
Manatt has special skill in dealing with the sensitive environmental and regulatory concerns involved in petroleum production, refining and marketing. Our attorneys represented a refining client in all regulatory approvals for the first grassroots refinery authorized to operate in Southern California since 1980, and have negotiated favorable variances in air-quality regulations on behalf of refiners. We also address a wide range of other environmental issues, from Superfund site and toxic waste controversies to the environmental liability arising from a large oil spill into marine waters.
With our nationwide trial capabilities, we handle a variety of litigation for petroleum refiners and marketers involving such issues as:
§ Insurance coverage for major environmental liabilities associated with refinery remediation;
§ Environmental disputes over UST, BTEX, MTBE and California Proposition 65 matters;
§ Product liability actions, including MTBE in gasoline, and contaminated jet fuel; and
§ Retail and wholesale pricing antitrust litigation and FTC/ Competition Bureau investigations in the United States and Canada.
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