Our team has extensive experience working with clients on environmental management systems, voluntary disclosures, compliance and audit programs, and other strategies to minimize to the greatest extent possible the risk of being an enforcement target. Still, the complexity and breadth of the environmental laws and the aggressiveness of government and citizen enforcers can result in companies unexpectedly finding themselves in the midst of an enforcement case. At the US federal level, this can sometimes result from the EPA's increased targeting of particular industrial sectors for enforcement and subjecting the companies in those sectors to intensive investigations, including surprise site inspections and burdensome administrative subpoenas to collect and produce information.
Our lawyers have breadth and depth of experience in all phases of environmental enforcement, from advising clients on how best to deal with surprise site inspections and search warrants, to seeking in appropriate cases to achieve settlements that avoid the need for litigation, and to representation in defending enforcement cases in court if settlement is either not appropriate or cannot be reached.