Selected Environmental Litigation Highlights,

• Port of Houston Authority v. GB Biosciences Corporation, et al.  Represented plaintiff Port of Houston Authority in multi-party, complex environmental litigation matter spanning over 5 years, involving DDT and other pesticide contamination released onto the Port’s property, submerged lands and waterways.  The case involved a database of over one million documents, extensive scientific fingerprinting, modeling and chemical forensics and resulted in a total settlement package for the Port valued at $100 million, which the National Law Journal named as one of the ten most significant verdicts/settlements in Texas for 2003.
• Residents Opposing Pigs and Livestock v. Texas A&M University, et al.  Represented Texas A&M University in a §1983 Civil Rights environmental justice action brought by residents alleging disproportionate environmental impacts associated with the siting of The George Bush Presidential Library at the former site of the University’s pig and livestock facility.  Issues centered around environmental land use and siting, noise pollution, odor pollution and air pollution.  Achieved summary judgment for the University, with the Judge dismissing claims asserted under Title VI, Title VIII, the Clean Water Act, and the Fifth Amendment, among others.
• Cummings v. Texaco, et al.  Represented target defendants in one of the first Superfund/property damage cases litigated in Texas in a 5-week trial, taking close to 100 depositions and witness statements of truck drivers, experts and other witnesses over several years of discovery and trial preparation.  The 6-0, zero-damage defense verdict was rendered by the jury in less than 3 hours and defendants were allowed to recover their costs.
• United States of America and The State of Texas v. Browning Ferris Industries Chemical Services, Inc.  Defended natural resources damages case, ultimately negotiating one of the first natural resources “cash-out” settlements in the State of Texas achieved with State and federal trustees.
• U.S. v. Alexander, 771 F.Supp. 830 (S.D. Tex. 1991); vacated by U.S. v. Alexander, 981 F.2d 250 (5th Cir. 1993) (on sanctions portion only).  Represented premium defendant and achieved dismissal of §113 contribution claims against client in one of the first federal cases in Texas to address the scope of contribution protection under CERCLA.
• Coastal Casting Service, Inc. et al. v. Lena Aron, et al.  Obtained one of the first favorable lender liability decisions on behalf of lending institution that had foreclosed upon a Superfund site.

Selected Examples of Expert Witness Experience

• Lowe v. Monsanto Company, In the 152nd District Court, (Judge Harvey Brown, presiding.)  Retained as legal expert on environmental law and presented two days of expert testimony for the defense on Superfund liability issues regarding the Brio Superfund Site and related environmental matters.  After expert testimony, jury rendered verdict for the defense within 20 minutes.
• In re Royal Bank of Canada, Queens Bench, Calgary.  Provided expert witness testimony in Canadian trial on behalf of the Royal Bank of Canada.  Testified as an expert on U.S. environmental laws and effect of environmental lender liability laws in connection with foreclosure issues associated with contaminated property in Texas.  Judge ruled favorably on all environmental issues in case.
• Southwest Business Properties v. Telxon.  Retained as plaintiff’s legal expert on cleanup standards and interpretation of environmental laws in case associated with tenant’s alleged contamination of landlord’s commercial property.  Rendered expert opinions and provided legal support on environmental issues. 
• Avitts v. Amoco, United States District Court, Galveston Division, (Judge Samuel Kent, presiding.)   Retained as defense legal expert for trial and rendered expert opinions on environmental fees and standards issues in connection with alleged subsurface contamination of oil field case under Oil Pollution Act.  
• GSL Investments, Inc. v. Grief, Inc., In the 23rd Judicial District Court, Brazoria County.  Retained as an expert on environmental law and rendered expert opinions regarding standards associated with environmental due diligence in real estate transactions and contribution claims under the Texas Solid Waste Disposal Act. 
• City of Austin v. Reichhold Inc., et al., Case No. A-06-CA-015 SS; In the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas, Austin Division.  Retained as defense expert on environmental law, environmental issues associated with real estate transactions and regulatory interpretation of Texas Solid Waste Disposal Act. 

Selected Regulatory Environmental Highlights

• EPA Headquarters/OMB Preauthorization of a CERCLA §111(a) Claim.  Negotiated one of only five "mixed-funding" settlements achieved in the country at the time as Counsel to Superfund Task Force composed primarily of major oil companies in an action brought by the United States Government in connection with a Superfund site. 
• Environmental Contribution, Cost-Recovery and CERCLA representation.  Continuous representation for 20-plus years in numerous large-scale, multi-party toxic tort and mass contamination matters, including contribution, cost-recovery, allocation and third-party property damage and personal injury matters arising from Superfund sites in cases brought by hundreds and thousands of plaintiffs.  Negotiated numerous complex consent decrees, administrative orders and settlements, many of which contained innovative components or strategies unique at the time, including issues associated with mixed funding, de minimis and de micromis settlements, innocent landowner issues, environmental justice  issues, NCP consistency, ROD amendments and ESDs, among other components.
• Transportation-Related Environmental Representation.  Representation of critical intermodal transportation-related industries (seaports, airports, and railroads) addressing litigation and environmental issues particular to transportation.  Representation of ports and port-related businesses, including complex contaminated sediment cases and litigation associated with dredging and commercial economic impacts associated with port-related businesses.  Representation of several airports, providing environmental regulatory support for airline-related matters associated with jet-fuel spills, air quality issues associated with co-located facilities (car rental facilities, airport-sited support), and co-located stormwater and other types of wastewater and air permitting, among other environmental issues.  Representation of railroad in connection with railroad-related matters, including hazardous materials transport, creosote impacts, release reporting and derailments.  Provide regulatory support for spill control and countermeasure plans for ports, yards and terminals, mobile fueling and wastewater treatment issues, off-loading and quarantine matters, as well as negotiating easements, tariffs and indemnity agreements with operators, licensees and tenants.
• Natural Resource Damages.  Representation in matters concerning large-scale impacts to natural resources and quantification and valuation of damages and resolution of issues in litigation and via innovative settlements and procedural agreements.  Negotiated precedential settlements with trustees, including innovative interpretations of state NRD grants of authority and delegation of regulatory authority.  Led teams of experts to identify and quantify impacts via caged-fish bioaccumulation studies, bioassay testing (benthic community and fish tissue), bird and wildlife receptor studies, avian toxicological screens, effects range impact evaluation, fate and transport modeling (including colloidal transport of pesticides), uptake and egg-shell thinning impacts, modeling of chemical degradation and attenuation and chemical-dating procedures and forensic evidentiary reconstruction of historical plant processes to fingerprint persistent chemicals to various sources, among other representations.  Provide representation in connection with contaminated sediment issues, a unique resource associated with specific sets of damages and quantification methods, in coordination with NOAA, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and other governmental and trustee agencies.
• Environmental Transactional Support and Risk Management.  Decades of representation in transaction structuring, negotiation and documentation concerning environmental liabilities and contaminated properties, representing a wide range of parties involved in the commercial real estate business, including shopping center owners, real estate investors, property management companies, industrial and residential developers, brokers, landlords and tenants in connection with risk-related environmental matters associated with purchase and sale,  financing, deed recordation, land use, institutional controls, insurance and evaluation of long-term real property exit strategy options.   Application of environmental risk management tools to transactions involving contaminated properties and environmental risk transfer and management, including Brownfield redevelopment in connection with the sale of the largest of industrial facilities and mergers and acquisitions, utilizing innovative corporate and transactional vehicles to reduce potential liabilities for contaminated properties.  Structured environmental risk programs to facilitate divestitures of hundreds of dry cleaning plants, multitudes of impacted gas station sites, the sale and winding-down of a series of historical iron foundries in the northeast, and the decommissioning of oil and gas producing properties, among many other transactions.
• Large-scale historical site-wide/facility-wide complex cleanups/work-outs.  Decades of leading teams of experts, consultants and insurers to address cleanup and liability resolution with regulatory agencies in connection with large, complex site-wide environmental cleanups.  Retained to work with environmental consultants and contractors to ensure cost-effective and complete environmental cleanup to specific standards negotiated with regulators, including assisting clients with the bid process for identifying environmental consultants and contractors, negotiating consulting agreements, addressing privilege issues and ensuring the placement of sufficient liability insurance to address cleanup and remediation issues.  Representations have included critical negotiations regarding pivotal cleanup standards and other performance-based specifications for cleanup, as well as evaluation of compliance with scope of work and schedule.  Defense of clients in connection with cleanup-related lawsuits and claims, including construction allegations of defective construction and design specifications for complex remediation projects, force majeure, change order disputes, stand-by day charges and changing site conditions that have posed obstacles in meeting EPA schedules and/or increased the potential for contaminant migration.  Address potential liabilities associated with hazardous waste shipping, hazmat regulatory requirements and manifesting procedures associated with third-party transport. 
• Industrial Accidents, Catastrophic Releases and Emergency Response.  Representation in connection with facility explosions, releases and catastrophic accidents at petrochemical facilities, chemical plants, refineries, pipeline ruptures, oil fields and derailment scenes, including regulatory issues associated with large-scale releases.  Provide comprehensive approach to coordinating the investigation, claims, third-party litigation and environmental regulatory response to major accidents by handling cause and origin investigations, regulatory interaction, hazardous materials response, release reporting and defense of claims arising out of industrial accidents.
• Oil and Gas-Related Environmental Support.  Representation in connection with extensive remediation and decommissioning of NORM contamination issues involving major oil companies, independent oil companies and other users of oil and gas industry pipe and tubulars.  Assist in negotiations with regulatory agencies in connection with radiation monitoring and resolution of various lawsuits for personal injury and property damage arising out of presence of NORM contamination.  Negotiation of stock purchase and asset agreements in connection with multiple oil and gas leases, wells and units, addressing environmental issues associated with assets such as pipelines, gathering and processing systems, compressors and equipment, easements, rights-of-way, surface leases, surface fee interests, licenses and permits.
  

Books

• Corporate Counsel's Guide to Environmental Problems in Corporate Transactions, Author of Chapter 7 of hardback treatise published by Business Laws, Inc., ©1993
• Environmental Handbook, Co-Author of book published by the Greater Houston Partnership in 1993.
• Texas Environmental Law Handbook, Editor and Co-Author of treatise on Texas environmental law, published by Government Institutes, Inc., April 1989; Second Edition published in October 1990.

Law Review and Law Journal Articles

• Getting Busy: Corporate Issues in the Early Stages of Criminal Environmental Investigations, The Journal of Corporation Law, Volume 22, No. 3, Spring 1997 (reprinted in The Environmental Counselor, Business Laws, Inc.)
• Lender Emptor - Lender Liability Relief Under RCRA?, Texas Environmental law Journal, Spring 1996, Vol. 26, No. 4.
• Bankruptcy -- The Last Environmental Loophole? South Texas Law Review, October 1993, Vol. 34, No. 3. (Also cited in 2007 University of Michigan Working Paper Series on "Limited Liability Polluters in Chapter 11.")
• What Price Innocence? A Realistic View of the Innocent Landowner Defense Under CERCLA, Volume 22, St. Mary's Law Journal, Number 1, 1990.
• How to Avoid Environmental Liability in Business Transactions, 43 Southwestern Law Journal, February 1990, Special Edition on Environmental Law.

Other Publications

• Municipal Setting Designation, Dry Cleaner Remediation Program, Underground Storage Tanks, published in Brownfields Tool Kit, 20th Annual Texas Environmental Superconference, Austin, Texas, August 6, 2008.
• Matching Expectations with Gender Relations, Texas Bar Journal, Focus on Diversity Column, January 2008.
• MSDs Create New Alternatives for Impacted Properties, Texas Lawyer, October 29, 2007.
• Risk Management Plays Lead in Environmentally Impacted Sites, Houston Business Journal, April 20-26, 2007.
• Gender Fairness – Four Years Later, Houston Lawyer, March/April, 2007.
• State Bar of Texas Report on Hiring, Retention and Promotion of Minority and Women Attorneys in Large and Medium Size Law Firms and Corporations - Co-Author of report commissioned by the State Bar of Texas which compiled information about current practices and contained proposals and recommendations to the State Bar to implement programs to address issues facing minority and women attorneys.  The report is available on-line at www.texasbar.com, under the menu item, Other Bar Groups/Minority and Women Lawyers.  Released January 2007.
• Environmental Law Update - Advising Mid-Sized Corporations, University of Houston Law Center CLE, September 22-23, 2005.
• Natural Resource Damages Claims Under the New Jersey Spill Compensation and Control Act, Mealey's Environmental Litigation Conference, Houston, Texas, April 18-19, 2005.
• Environmental Considerations In Real Estate Transactions, University of Houston Law Foundation Advanced Real Estate Short Course, Houston, Texas, November 11-12, 2004.
• Successful Strategies for Minority and Women Rainmakers, 2004 ABA Annual Meeting, Section of Litigation, Atlanta, Georgia, August 5-8, 2004.
• Attorney/Consultant Relationship, 11th Annual Texas Environmental Superconference, Austin, Texas, August 1999.
• Sensitive Issues in Environmental Litigation, Civil Litigation Program, Law Education Institute, Inc., January 1996.
• Surprise EPA Inspections, 5th Annual Environmental Corporate Counsel Institute, Dallas, Texas, November 1994.
• Site Inspections, Environmental Law & Environmental Science For Lawyers, University of Houston Law Center, Houston, Texas, June 23-24, 1994.
• The EPA Lender Liability Rule - Here Today, Gone Tomorrow, Probate & Property Magazine, May/June 1994.
• Trustee Liability - Alive Under CERCLA!, The Houston Lawyer Magazine, November-December 1993, Volume 31, Number 3.
• Environmental Regulation in Texas, Institute of Business Law, California State University, Los Angeles, December 8, 1993.
• Hazardous Waste Considerations in Real Estate Transactions, University of Houston Law Center Advanced Real Estate Short Course, November 11-12, 1993.
• Benchmarking -- Redefining and Measuring the Relationship Between In-House and Outside Counsel, accepted for publication in Texas Bar Journal.
• Environmental Consultants - Hiring, Firing and Other Problems, American Bar Association Annual Meeting, August 9, 1993.
• How to Select an Environmental Consultant, Texas Environmental Superconference, August 6, 1993.
• Successfully Managing the Overlap With Other Regulations, Operating Under RCRA and CERCLA Requirements, Executive Enterprises, June 2, 1993.
• Environmental Law Update, ABA Probate and Property Magazine, March/April 1993.
• Taking Control of the Litigation, Cost-Effective and Creative Litigation Strategies for the Environmental Case, ABA Toxic and Hazardous Substances and Environmental Law Committee, Tucson, Arizona, April 1-3, 1993.
• Environmental Real Estate Considerations, Houston Business Journal, March 8, 1993.
• Resolution of Liability Through Settlements, Hazardous Waste Cleanup: Litigation and Settlement Briefing, CLE International, Houston, Texas, February 18-19, 1993.
• The EPA Lender Liability Rule - Does It Work? Real Estate Law: Mortgages - In Depth, SMU School of Law, January 28-29, 1993.
• Managing Environmental Consultants, South Texas College of Law Environmental Law Symposium - 1993, January 21-22, 1993.
• Hazardous Waste Considerations in Real Estate Transactions, University of Houston Advanced Real Estate Short Course, November 19-20, 1992.
• Environmental Indemnification Clauses: Negotiation and Litigation Developments Affecting What Works and What Doesn't, American Bar Association Third Annual Conference on Environment