Environmental Contamination

We have successfully defended against alleged exposures to TCE, TCA and PCE, vinyl chloride, polychlorinated biphenyls, dioxins, benzene, creosote, beryllium, fungicides and mixed chemical contamination at hazardous waste sites. We have faced the whole gamut of medical claims, including cancer, endocrine disruption, birth defects, immune dysfunction, neurological injury, and multiple chemical sensitivities, as well as claims for medical monitoring, natural resource damages, diminished property values and lost profits. Among the matters we have handled for our clients:

• Represent a chemical company in an unprecedented putative national class action that seeks an injunction ordering defendants to fund a “science panel” to determine the alleged health effects of PFAS.
• Serve as national counsel for a chemical company in hundreds of cases in a federal multidistrict litigation in South Carolina seeking damages for water contamination and personal injuries allegedly arising from the use of aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF) containing PFAS. 
• Represented clients in responding to pre-litigation subpoenas issued by various state attorneys general in various environmental matters. 
• Assisted a client in successfully responding to an Environmental Working Group petition before the Consumer Product Safety Commission involving PFOA and worked with the client and two outside experts to successfully defend a Proposition 65 action regarding polytetrafluoroethylene and PFOA/PFOS before the California Attorney General’s office.
• Serve as national coordinating and trial counsel for several Fortune 500 companies in some of their largest occupational exposure litigation, such as asbestos, silica, and welding fumes. We develop long-term strategy, manage discovery, identify and develop experts and fact witnesses, brief key legal issues, coordinate trial activities and serve as counsel of record in some proceedings.
• Represent a major petroleum refiner and marketer in nationwide MTBE litigation brought by state governments, water providers, municipalities, and individuals, alleging negligence, public and private nuisance, trespass, and strict liability for design defect or failure to warn based on alleged contamination of groundwater and drinking water supplies.
• Represented CSX Transportation as trial counsel in national environmental neighborhood cases and putative class actions in several states. We also coordinated CSX’s FELA chlorinated solvent litigation, as well as the company’s creosote docket.
• Represented a major crop protection manufacturer in a series of cases alleging that exposures to a fungicide caused birth defects. We successfully ended the litigation after obtaining Daubert exclusion of plaintiffs’ causation experts in West Virginia federal court and Delaware state court, both upheld on appeals.
• Represented clients in environmental spill and neighborhood litigations in which the effects of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita on landowners and the environment were central to the damage and causation claims of plaintiffs.