Environmental issues continue to pose unique and complex challenges for businesses and public entities of all types, compounded by regulatory uncertainties and a growing emphasis on how environmental policies impact occupational safety and public health. As science advances and public policy priorities change, the challenges for those operating in the regulated community will likewise shift and increase.
Armstrong Teasdale's environmental practice has in-depth, long-standing experience in virtually every facet of environmental law. From environmental transactions to litigation and regulatory compliance, our lawyers have assisted clients in dealing with regulators, activists, lenders and other diverse stakeholders. Our team excels at finding creative solutions to our clients' environmental issues.
Environmental Issues in Transactions
We have navigated environmental issues in national and international transactions, such as corporate and real estate transactions with environmental components, Brownfield redevelopment projects, and the use of environmental insurance and risk transfer strategies to manage environmental exposure. We advise clients from multiple perspectives and have experience performing due diligence inquiries, environmental audits and environmental liability assessments in connection with mergers and acquisitions, financings, debt acquisitions, governmental investigations and real estate transactions throughout the United States, and in Europe and South America.
Our lawyers are experienced in handling environmental risk transfer transactions. They have designed and implemented dozens of risk transfer transactions involving former power plants, mining sites, refineries and various manufacturing sites. They also provide tactical advice on the management of portfolios of impaired properties. Our lawyers are skilled in developing alternative risk transfer mechanisms and using nontraditional insurance-based solutions.
Environmental Litigation
Our lawyers regularly litigate environmental claims and lawsuits in state and federal courts and before administrative law judges. We have successfully argued challenges to permits and regulations under the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, oil spill response actions and natural resource damages matters. We have also successfully defended environmental lawsuits brought by public interest groups and environmental activists. We frequently represent parties in complex, multiparty cases relating to insurance coverage for environmental losses, as well as counsel senior officers and executives in criminal investigations and cases relating to environmental laws.
We regularly litigate cases involving the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA or Superfund) and analogous state statutes. We have counseled potentially responsible parties, lenders, developers, corporations and investors about potential liability under CERCLA, including issues relating to successor liability, lender liability, cost allocation, indemnification, de facto mergers, contribution protection, natural resource damages and the innocent landowner defense.
We are also involved routinely in environmental exposure litigation and toxic tort litigation, including personal injury and property damage actions.
Regulatory Compliance and Permits
Armstrong Teasdale’s Environmental lawyers regularly counsel clients on regulatory compliance matters, including matters involving air, water, waste, land use planning and natural resource development. Our experience includes handling matters under the National Environmental Policy Act, the National Historic Preservation Act and similar state statutes and local land use planning ordinances. We assist clients in permit applications, negotiations and permit appeals, and have particular experience in the state of Missouri. The firm’s lawyers also are well-versed on the regulatory requirements related to so-called emerging contaminants and “forever” chemicals, such as PFAS.
Safety and Health
We represent clients in actions, investigations and cases addressing work conditions and occupational safety, including matters under the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), Department of Transportation (DOT), U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) and their state counterpart agencies. Our U.S. lawyers work closely with clients to review occupational safety and health practices, and have networks of engineering, chemical, safety and industrial hygiene experts to enlist as required to address client needs. We have handled matters involving employee fatalities and serious injuries, and we have served as counsel in hundreds of contested OSHA cases throughout the country, including trials of OSHA willful citations.