Kirsten L. Nathanson

Current representative matters include:

• Serving as federal environmental counsel to several corporations across multiple facilities and CERCLA sites, including significant landfill and contaminated sediment waterway sites and allocation mediation proceedings.
• Representing leading crop protection companies and national trade associations across a docket of litigation challenging product registrations under FIFRA; the Endangered Species Act; and the California Environmental Quality Act in California and D.C. federal district, state, and appellate courts.
• Representing a major transportation company in defending a CERCLA cost recovery claim by the United States.
• Representing a Fortune 50 company in the strategic management of legacy environmental liabilities.
• Representing multiple clients in CERCLA and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act enforcement actions at the state and federal levels, including vapor intrusion, groundwater plumes, and ethanol production waste.
• Serving as federal environmental regulatory and litigation counsel to multiple national trade associations.
• Representing a Fortune 10 energy company in CERCLA contribution litigation against the United States.

 

Prior matters of note include:

• Provided strategic counseling on Sustainability Accounting Standards Board standards for ESG disclosures, particularly with regard to endangered species.
• Defended a large natural gas producer against threatened Clean Water Act citizen suits related to hydraulic fracturing operations in the Marcellus Shale.
• Litigated the first Endangered Species Act citizen suit against a wind energy project.
• Provided strategic and compliance counseling to a major power-generating facility on federal environmental regulatory requirements, such as EPA’s Coal Combustion Residuals Rule, including enforcement schemes and related litigation risk.
• Represented a major mining company in multiple citizen suit litigation matters under NEPA and other federal laws challenging federal leasing and mine plan approval actions.
• Defended a Fortune 50 company in a citizen group challenge to the company’s environmental remediation activities at a historic industrial facility.
• Represented a coal company in a citizen suit brought under the RCRA and the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act related to the company’s handling and disposal of coal ash.
• Defended a Clean Water Act criminal enforcement action against a private wastewater treatment corporation.
• Litigated through trial a Clean Water Act citizen suit for a major animal agriculture corporation.
• Served as national coordinating counsel to a Fortune 10 company in its toxic tort litigation.
• Conducted an internal Clean Water Act investigation for a corporation related to historical development activities in wetlands.
• Conducted regulatory litigation for the National Mining Association under the SMCRA and for agricultural trade associations under the Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act.
• Conducted an internal investigation and a risk assessment for a Fortune 100 corporation related to the company’s remediation activities.
• Defended EPA enforcement actions under CERCLA, including defense of unilateral administrative orders.
• Conducted NEPA litigation for a land developer needing public lands access for a planned resort development.

• Chambers USA,  Environment – District of Columbia, 2013—Present

• The Best Lawyers in America:  Litigation – Environmental, 2024