Practice Areas & Industries: Patton Boggs LLP

Practice/Industry Group Overview

Environmental Law

The firm's environmental practitioners maintain nationwide, cutting-edge practices in environmental media including water, air, hazardous waste, nuclear materials, and natural resource damages. The group has in-depth knowledge of federal environmental laws and regulations affecting businesses, as well as state statutes and regulations in locations where our clients operate.

Because many of our attorneys have held legal and executive positions in relevant federal agencies--at EPA, FERC, DOI, DOE, and DOJ--they are able to devise solutions across the spectrum of legislative, regulatory, and litigation options. For example, our lawyers might determine to address a matter through legislation or rulemaking, where others might see litigation as the only option.

Our environmental practitioners:

- Prevent and defend enforcement actions brought by the EPA concerning air, water, and hazardous materials and waste issues

- Permit large, complex oil and gas exploration and development projects that involve an array of environmental issues under the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, Coastal Zone Management Act, National Environmental Policy Act, Marine Mammal Protection Act, Endangered Species Act, and other state and local mandates

- Defend litigation challenging natural resource extraction projects in federal and state courts and before administrative agencies under state and federal laws, including the National Environmental Policy Act, National Historic Preservation Act, Endangered Species Act, Clean Air Act, and Clean Water Act

- Work with Environmental Protection Agency and Department of the Interior personnel in developing policies and regulatory positions that coincide with the goals of clients

- Advise clients on evolving legal requirements and compliance, both domestically and internationally

- Develop environmental management systems for clients in order to improve environmental compliance and reduce costs

- Defend criminal actions brought under the various environmental statutes

- Conduct due diligence concerning environmental issues and assist clients in allocating environmental liabilities in connection with mergers and acquisitions

- Advocate before Congress, federal agencies, and state legislatures concerning environmental legislation

Health and Safety Law - OSHA/ MSHA/ NIOSH

Patton Boggs boasts the nation's pre-eminent health and safety law practice, providing clients with strategic advice that considers the various legal, technical, and policy implications of a matter. By helping our clients both to preserve and increase their corporate value and to recognize how managing the individual and community risks associated with workplace injuries, illness, and environmental damage is critical to fulfilling individual and corporate duties, we have established an unparalleled record in meeting and often exceeding client goals.

While we emphasize risk reduction and legal compliance over risk response, we also are unsurpassed in providing emergency services that not only reduce financial risks, but which are essential to containing and surviving a crisis and enhancing a client's public image. Furthermore, we advise our clients based on both statutory/regulatory duties and our expertise in agency investigations, agency enforcement, and insurance coverage (along with our knowledge of customer, workforce, community, and media relations), thus drawing from our successful experiences in defending liability lawsuits and enforcement actions. Using our long-term relationships with political and agency leaders and our world-renowned scientific, engineering, and technical experts, we have achieved an international reputation for success in our health and safety litigation efforts, including our recent involvement in cases concerning the mineral silica and its deadly effects.

The Patton Boggs health and safety team has lawyers in all of our U.S. offices. We work closely with the Washington, DC and regional government offices of the departments and agencies engaged in safety, health and environmental activities, such as MSHA, OSHA, NIOSH, ATF, FAA, DOE, NTSB, and the Chemical Safety Board. Patton Boggs also represented several company and trade associations in action against the ACGIH and the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). The firm continues to work with many state agencies, foreign regulatory entities, and consensus and private standard-setting groups on behalf of clients across the country and around the world, while interacting extensively with the committees, Members, and Senators in the U.S. Congress that oversee the health and safety agencies and budget responsibilities for them. The following are examples of some of the risk reduction and liability prevention services that we provide:

- Program development and reviews

- Management training for inspections and investigations

- Audits of compliance, record keeping, and training

- Acquisition compliance due diligence

- Regulatory variance counseling and advocacy

- Contractor/Subcontractor management and counsel

- Enforcement counseling, negotiation, settlement, and litigation

- Crisis management and on site incident response counsel

- Liability and coverage analysis and response

- Internal investigations

- Expert selection, retention, and management

- Litigation, arbitration, and mediation

- Expert counsel for health effects litigation

- Informal agency settlement representation

- Agency rulemaking counseling, advocacy, and litigation

- Private standard setting counsel and litigation

- Scientific research counsel

- Product stewardship and liability counseling and litigation

- Congressional hearings, appropriations, and legislation counsel

- "Whistleblower" and discrimination law counseling and litigation

- "White collar" criminal defense

Representative Matters:

- Provided counsel on emerging liability issues regarding ergonomics, silica, and diesel exhaust, including rulemaking participation, Congressional actions, research coordination, litigation assistance and expert retention. Provided insurance coverage, recovery counsel, and contract provision drafting and implementation assistance to enhance risk reduction efforts.

- Provided crisis management and investigated/defended two construction fatality/disasters, five mining and quarry fatality/disasters, two fatal manufacturing accidents, and two service industry accidents; in all cases preventing or minimizing enforcement actions, securing insurance coverage, and establishing defenses.

- Provided counsel to more than 50 Fortune 500 companies on environmental, health and safety matters, including OSHA, MSHA, NIOSH, EPA, DOT, and ATF regulatory issues, claims, inspection and investigation advice, informal penalty settlements, and program/policy reviews.

- Obtained dismissal of two whistleblower cases and initiated formal contests of over 35 major enforcement and/or whistleblower/discrimination cases around the country, including providing emergency response when needed.