Mark A. Thimke is a partner with Foley & Lardner LLP. He is a member of the firm's Environmental Regulation Practice and the Energy Industry Team.
Mr. Thimke's practice encompasses all major environmental programs, including hazardous waste, Superfund, the Clean Air Act, air toxics, and wastewater. He has been involved in Superfund matters ranging from landfills, municipal well fields, and the investigation and cleanup of river and harbor sediment remediation areas, representation of dischargers on issues involving water toxics limitations, and the development of a detailed anti-degradation policy, and work on several major air enforcement actions.
Mr. Thimke has been involved in a number of criminal investigations in the environmental area, and regularly conducts internal investigations in connection with alleged criminal activity. The following are several investigations in which Mr. Thimke has been involved:
· Criminal investigation associated with the alleged burial of waste-containing drums prior to plant inspection by senior management
· Criminal investigation associated with the falsification of wastewater discharge monitoring reports
· Internal investigation and grand jury investigation into the alleged use bypassing of wastewater discharge monitoring devices
· Criminal investigation alleging improper removal of asbestos
Mr. Thimke has participated in several small group workshops with personnel from the United States Environmental Protection Agency, which developed recommendations for improving the Superfund cleanup process, cost allocation, and dispute resolution methods. At the state level, he has served on the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources NR 700 External Advisory Committee, which worked for two years on the development of a comprehensive state cleanup code. He continued his work in this area as a member of a select focus group that worked on the development of soil cleanup standards and a comprehensive remedy selection process.
Mr. Thimke has lectured on environmental matters throughout the country and was a principal instructor during a week-long session on environmental compliance at a federal facility in the Republic of the Marshall Islands. He is a member of the Environmental Law Section of the Wisconsin Bar, and the Natural Resources Section of the American Bar Association. He also is an author of the Wisconsin section of the Matthew Bender publication, State Environmental Laws.
Mr. Thimke is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin Green Bay (B.A., summa cum laude, 1976) and Duke University (J.D., 1979), where he was elected to Order of the Coif and served as a staff and editorial board member on the Duke Law Journal.
Mr. Thimke is Peer Review Rated as AV® Preeminent™, the highest performance rating in Martindale-Hubbell's peer review rating system and was selected by his peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America® for environmental law. He was also selected for inclusion in the 2005 - 2008 and 2010 - 2011 lists of Wisconsin Super Lawyers® and the 2010 and 2011 editions of Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business.