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Services Available
Environmental regulations. Our attorneys counsel clients in a range of matters involving local, state and federal regulatory bodies, including compliance efforts under the Superfund law, permitting and enforcement under the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act; and negotiations, litigation, administrative appeals, civil penalty assessments and enforcement orders. We have unique and strong capabilities in the new and growing area of climate change regulation.
Transactional Counseling and Site Remediation. For clients who confront environmental issues in buying or selling property, Saul Ewing's attorneys provide transactional counseling from drafting and negotiating agreements to managing associated legal, environmental and financial risks. For owners of contaminated facilities, Saul Ewing helps facilitate site remediation.
Regulatory takings. We represent landowners in regulatory takings cases, including a case that established important principles in the development of Pennsylvania eminent domain law.
Environmental litigation. We represent clients in a range of civil litigation and administrative actions, helping clients meet their goals in a cost-effective manner. We appear before state and federal courts (including administrative law courts), boards and agencies in Delaware, Maryland New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia, and handle a range of environmental matters in civil courts, including:
- Government cost recovery actions under Superfund and comparable state law
- Private party cost recovery and contribution actions under Superfund and comparable state law
- Enforcement proceedings under Superfund, RCRA, Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act and other federal and state environmental statutes
- Appeals relating to environmental permits issued by government agencies
- Defense of citizens' suits
- Environmental contract disputes, including indemnification and insurance recovery.
Environmental project management. We are often called upon to work closely with our clients, government regulators, and consultants to lead a project from the concept phase, through permitting, public hearings and any subsequent regulatory challenges into cleanup activity. Our lawyers either take the lead or work hand-in-hand with the consultants in managing the administrative aspects of compliance from concept through completion of the project.
Representative Matters
- In May 2009, members of Saul Ewing's Environment and Natural Resources Practice Group, working with lead counsel at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, provided environmental due diligence to global private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR) as it considered investing $350 million in East Resources, Inc., one of the biggest players in the exploration and development of the Marcellus Shale.
Joel R. Burcat, Chair of the Environment and Natural Resources Practice Group, and George Asimos, David J. Raphael and Emily Damron, Partner, Special Counsel and Associate, respectively, in the group, conducted the due diligence. The Marcellus Shale is a rock formation that underlies much of Pennsylvania and portions of New York, Maryland and West Virginia and is believed to hold trillions of cubic feet of natural gas.
In June 2009, as widely reported in the media, KKR closed on its $350 million investment in East Resources. Saul Ewing's Environment and Natural Resources Practice Group continues to actively follow regulatory developments, on the municipal, state and federal levels, that affect the Marcellus Shale.
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