Find Lawyers in Girona, Spain for Environmental Law
Practice Area Overview
An environmental lawyer deals with any legal matters arising from the impacts caused by activities, projects, programs, etc. on the environment, which necessarily has to be understood as the interaction of several connected elements. In this regard, Environmental Law itself can be easily divided into subsections corresponding to each of the natural elements that are affected by human activities, essentially, air, water, soil, waste & hazardous substances management, flora & fauna, and natural areas.
An environmental lawyer can be extremely important when a business operator intends to develop an industrial activity in which several environmental permits are usually required, involving long and complex procedures before different administrative authorities. Normally, these activities require continued legal environmental advice once they are commissioned to comply with periodical requirements by the Administration, new environmental regulations, and technical progress of the activities.
Also, our role is quite important in advising on due diligence processes within M&A transactions, since potential environmental risks can turn out serious, and their detection can lead to advise against a transaction or definitely influence on its price.
Moreover, due to the reform of the Spanish Criminal Code introducing corporate criminal liability, it has also become important for clients to have a compliance surveillance system to prevent environmental criminal offences. The legal advice on environmental undertakings can also be very important during the design, implementation, and monitoring of these compliance schemes for businesses with relevant environmental impacts.
Another usual task for an environmental lawyer is to defend clients against infringement procedures related to non-compliance with environmental regulations. In this regard, it is highly advisable that the environmental lawyer is not only familiar with administrative proceedings, but also with the judicial stage, since a high percentage of the decisions taken by the competent authorities are finally challenged before the courts.
As a conclusion, the environmental law practice implies a wide range of legal work and includes legal advice in all possible manners: preventive, defensive, and transactional.
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Xavier graduated in law from Girona University (1998). He then gained a Postgraduate Diploma in Real Estate and Urban Planning (1999) and a Master’s in Public Law and Administrative Organisation from Pompeu Fabra University (2002). Between 1999 and 2003 he practised at the law firm Massaguer-Pau in Girona where he specialised in administrative law and urban planning law. From 2000 to 2007 he was also secretary and auditor of the Sant Andreu Salou Town Council. Xavier joined Pareja &...
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