Find Lawyers in Grand Rapids, Michigan for Environmental Law
Practice Area Overview
Environmental law involves an intricate matrix of federal and state public welfare statutes enacted to protect both human health and our natural resources. The economic and socio-geopolitical impact of these laws requires the practice of environmental law to continuously evolve. Areas of environmental law include the following:
Regulatory
The input and experience of an environmental lawyer is crucial in designing, supporting, and auditing environmental compliance systems. Environmental lawyers often participate in the administrative process on the federal and state level to encourage sound rulemaking. They also assist clients in sorting through regulatory ambiguities, which sometimes arise in enforcement proceedings.
Litigation
Environmental litigation occurs at both the civil and criminal level. Enforcement proceedings with federal and state regulators are conducted through either administrative adjudications or in court. Most federal environmental statutes have citizen suit provisions allowing individuals to initiate enforcement litigation on behalf of the government. Suits contesting environmental permits and siting decisions occur frequently and can cause significant delays for projects. Superfund designations are a source of significant litigation, particularly in the cost recovery area. Other areas of environmental litigation include: toxic torts, natural resource damages, water rights disputes, brownfields, endangered species challenges, climate change, and groundwater contamination suits.
Business Transactions
Environmental laws can significantly impact the economics of an M&A or real property transaction. If a facility does not have the entitlements to operate; has an expensive compliance issue that must be remedied; or has significant cleanup liability, it can materially alter the viability and/or structure of a deal. Clients depend on environmental lawyers to establish deal parameters and translate risks into economic terms for the valuation process.
Strategic Corporate Planning
Depending on how environmental regulations develop, a company could gain a significant economic advantage over its competitors. Evolving regulation in areas such greenhouse gas emissions have the potential of altering the business model of some companies, while creating growth opportunities for others.
Corporate Governance
Events such as the Deepwater Horizon accident are redefining the roles of senior executives and boards of directors. There is a new wave of internal controls that many corporations are implementing in response to regulatory and shareholder influence.
Crisis Management
An environmental crisis such as an oil spill, toxic leak, or refinery explosion can be a defining moment in the history of a corporation. When a crisis hits, all aspects of environmental law come into play and requires experienced, clear-eyed counsel to help corporations, municipalities, and other impacted entities to successfully respond to and emerge from such an event.
Douglas A. Donnell graduated magna cum laude from Miami University with a bachelor's degree in Economics and received his law degree with honors from Boston College Law School. Doug specializes in environmental law and commercial litigation and has represented both public and private sector clients and individuals in these areas since 1979. He is a member of the Environment, Energy and Natural Resources Section of the American Bar Association and the Environmental Law Section of the Michigan ...
Matt is the current practice group chair for the environmental practice group. and his vast experience includes general environmental law, environmental compliance counseling, transactional due diligence, administrative law, civil and administrative enforcement defense, environmental insurance, Brownfield redevelopment and financing, agricultural law, and energy/alternative energy law. He routinely reviews environmental site assessments, directs remediation projects and has done extensive wor...
ce Goodman practices energy law, environmental law, and construction law. His environmental expertise includes air quality permitting work, compliance counseling on air emissions, state and federal enforcement defense issues, and environmental management program development. His energy expertise includes negotiating numerous electric power sales agreements (both for wholesale sellers of energy and for retail consumers of energy) state electric rate cases, developing municipal energy tariffs, ...
Emily specializes in real estate and environmental law. Her real estate practice focuses on buying, selling, and leasing commercial real estate, although she also helps businesses, individuals and financial institutions with a variety of other real estate matters. She routinely advises clients regarding environmental compliance and regulatory issues relating to underground storage tanks, waste management, permitting, environmental enforcement, and the investigation, cleanup and regulatory clo...
Tammy Helminski advises municipal, institutional, manufacturing and individual clients on the environmental aspects of their operations. Using her technical background as an engineer and legal policy experience allows her to analyze environmental challenges from various perspectives when providing practical solutions for her clients. Tammy, who is co-chair of the firm’s remediation, corrective action and voluntary cleanups team, manages complex remediation sites involving numerous parti...
William A. Horn received his bachelor's degree with honors from the University of Wisconsin and graduated cum laude from the University of Wisconsin Law School. Bill specializes in environmental, oil and gas, eminent domain, water and riparian rights, land use and public utility law, as well as civil and administrative litigation, and has been representing and counseling private and public sector clients in these areas since 1982. In addition to having served as an adjunct professor for a law...
Mary Jane represents clients in all types of real estate transactions and has a specialty practice in environmental law. Her environmental expertise includes counseling clients regarding environmental liabilities and negotiating environmental risks in the context of development projects, sales, mergers and acquisitions, regulatory compliance, remediations , disputes, and permitting, and accessing brownfield and other financial incentives. She serves a diverse client base, ranging from publicl...
Scott's representative experience includes: all aspects of guiding clients through property and business transactions with environmental issues; representation of clients in efforts to achieve closure of contaminated sites under state and federal laws; redevelopment of "brownfield" sites; representation of clients in the development of mining projects; counseling clients on environmental liability and regulatory compliance matters; securing land use permits and approvals; and representation o...
Matt is a member of the Environmental and Energy Practice Groups. A significant portion of Matt’s practice involves representation of municipalities and private developers in regard to water law matters, including: the permitting, operation and expansion of water supply/treatment/distribution systems and wastewater collection and treatment systems; sewer use ordinance drafting and enforcement including industrial pretreatment programs; stormwater management including ordinance drafting,...
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