Practice Areas & Industries: Roetzel & Andress, A Legal Professional Association

Practice/Industry Group Overview

Our Environmental Litigation attorneys at Roetzel & Andress are extensively experienced in providing legal representation in environmental matters. These matters include: cost recovery actions, negligence-based lawsuits, class action toxic tort suits, governmental enforcement actions, permitting appeals, contract indemnity disputes, and environmental exposure claims.

The financial stakes can be very high for clients when faced with environmental civil and criminal enforcement actions, Superfund litigation, toxic tort litigation and other environmental law actions. Understanding the myriad complexities of environmental litigation is essential to successful outcomes before courts and administrative agencies. Our Environmental Litigation attorneys have represented large corporations, municipalities, real estate developers, environmental contractors, state contractors, mining companies, petroleum companies, steel manufacturers, and warehouse owners.

We have existing working relationships with local, state, and federal regulatory and enforcement agencies. We practice in numerous state and federal courts, and we handle a wide variety of matters before agencies such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Ohio EPA, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, the Ohio Department of Health, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, the Florida Department of Natural Resources, and the Florida Department of Health.

Our teams in Ohio and Florida consist of attorneys who have practiced almost exclusively in the environmental law arena for their entire careers, as both private sector practitioners and lawyers with the environmental regulatory agencies. Our group includes a former senior environmental counsel at a major corporation, attorneys formerly with the Environmental Enforcement Section of the Ohio Attorney General's Office, a former supervising attorney with the Ohio EPA, and a former general counsel to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and Florida Department of Natural Resources. Due to our unique qualifications, Roetzel & Andress was recently identified as a "Leading Environmental Law Firm" in the 2003-2004 and 2005-2006 editions of America's Leading Business Lawyers, published by Chambers and Partners.

Services Available

• Administrative hearings and appeals
• Civil and criminal enforcement actions
• Common law and toxic tort litigation
• Contract indemnity litigation
• Superfund litigation

Representative Matters

• Represented a large municipality in an enforcement action initiated by the State of Ohio, persuading the courts of common pleas and appeals to deny a motion to intervene filed by a neighboring community and affirm the amicable settlement entered into with the State of Ohio
• Prosecuted an action under CERCLA and Ohio's Voluntary Action Program on behalf of shopping plaza owners to recover the cleanup costs incurred in responding to contamination from historic dry cleaning operations and obtained a favorable settlement after successfully defending against a motion for summary judgment
• Represented a chemical manufacturing company before the Florida Department of Health regarding an alleged product violation
• Defended an environmental contractor in a lawsuit alleging negligence in the response to a release from a petroleum underground storage tank and obtained a favorable settlement after briefing the issues on summary judgment
• Negotiated the settlement of a multi-facility PCB contamination matter between the buyer and seller in a private cost recovery action
• Participated in the successful defense of a lawsuit challenging a Section 404 Clean Water Act permit issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
• Served as lead trial counsel for a mining company in a significant class action toxic tort case involving radioactive slag
• Represented a client in an administrative hearing before the Florida Department of Community Affairs challenging the denial of a permit for the construction of affordable housing