Contaminated Sites

Our team has advised multinational industry leaders, Ports, and small firms at some of the most complicated cleanup sites in the country, including the Lower Duwamish, Hudson, Kalamazoo, and Willamette rivers. We often serve as long-term, strategic counsel to entities that face significant risk at contaminated sites. We are partners for the long haul, from site investigation and remediation counseling to litigation or allocation.

Services

Strategy Development and Execution
Complicated sites require a strategy that integrates legal and technical arguments, regulatory expertise, and factual development. We develop and guide teams of scientists, lawyers, project managers, and finance professionals to execute that strategy over the long life of the project.

Dispute Resolution and Allocation
Our lawyers have litigated in federal and state court over billions in cleanup costs, represented clients in complicated allocation matters involving dozens of parties, and represented numerous clients in mediations and arbitrations.

Natural Resource Damages Liability
We are involved in some of the largest NRD matters in the country, where we help clients hone sound technical and legal defenses and to develop restoration proposals that dovetail with remediation projects.

Remediation and Transactional Counseling
We commonly advise clients seeking to implement cost effective cleanups of sediment sites, wetlands, and contaminated properties, often with an eye toward reducing other liability exposure. We also team with buyers or sellers of contaminated property to assess and allocate the risk associated with that contamination.

Our Experience

Advising a Fortune 50 firm in remediation, allocation, and NRD matters in Washington, Oregon, New York, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania.

Acting as counsel of record to the Port of Portland in resolving its NRD liability to the federal and five tribal Trustees regarding the Portland Harbor Superfund Site.

Representing multiple parties at a confidential, long-term allocation process regarding cleanup liability at a large, Pacific Northwest sediment site.

Representing a large seafood harvesting and processing company in the environmental aspects of a strategic restructuring and modernization initiative involving the sale of numerous seafood processing facilities.