- Represented a large manufacturing company as lead defense counsel in connection with an EPA-state multifacility national enforcement initiative under RCRA
- Represented a Chapter 11 Debtor in the negotiation with State regulators of an innovative resolution of claims with respect to long term care and responsibility for a hazardous waste landfill under which the landfill was transferred to a trust funded to address long term care of the facility
- Retained as a mediator to resolve environmental claims between EPA and a Chapter 11 debtor in a case pending in Delaware
American Lawyer Media and Martindale-Hubbell: 2013 Top Rated Lawyer in Energy, Environmental, & Natural Resources
Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business 2012 for Environment (DC)
The Best Lawyers in America 2012 for Environmental Law
- JD, New York University School of Law, 1977
- BA, Yeshiva University, 1975
- MA, Yeshiva University, 1975
- District of Columbia
- New York
- Supreme Court of the United States
- "The Clean Water Act: Basic Practice Series" 2nd Edition, American Bar Association Section on Environment Energy and Resources, August 2012
- "Supreme Court Renders Decision in Sackett v. EPA" (PDF: 352 kB) Mar 2012
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Environmental
Joel Gross is a partner in Arnold & Porter LLP’s Washington, DC, office, which he joined in August 2000 after having served as Chief of the Environmental Enforcement Section at the US Department of Justice (DOJ). He is a member of the firm’s environmental practice group. Mr. Gross represents and advises clients in litigation and non-litigation matters under federal and state environmental laws, with a special emphasis on compliance and enforcement issues. He advises clients on compliance strategies that can minimize the risk of enforcement actions, and has represented a wide range of clients in connection with ongoing civil and or criminal enforcement actions under the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. He also represents clients dealing with, and seeking innovative approaches to resolve, remediation and natural resource damages liabilities arising from contaminated sites. Mr. Gross has a special interest in the interaction of the environmental laws and the bankruptcy laws and has represented both debtors and creditors in connection with environmental disputes in bankruptcy proceedings around the country.
Before joining Arnold & Porter, Mr. Gross worked for 17 years in the Environmental Enforcement Section of the DOJ, where he was heavily involved in some of the most significant environmental litigation of the 1980s and 1990s. For the last five years of his tenure, Mr. Gross was Chief of the Environmental Enforcement Section, the largest litigation section in the DOJ, with 160 attorneys. In that capacity, Mr. Gross was intimately involved in setting and implementing the federal government’s environmental enforcement policies and priorities. Mr. Gross’s responsibilities included the entire range of federal environmental enforcement litigation, including cases under Superfund, the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, and the Safe Drinking Water Act.
- Represented a large manufacturing company as lead defense counsel in connection with an EPA-state multifacility national enforcement initiative under RCRA
- Represented a Chapter 11 Debtor in the negotiation with State regulators of an innovative resolution of claims with respect to long term care and responsibility for a hazardous waste landfill under which the landfill was transferred to a trust funded to address long term care of the facility
- Retained as a mediator to resolve environmental claims between EPA and a Chapter 11 debtor in a case pending in Delaware
- Represented a company in the food processing business in the successful resolution of federal Clean Water Act enforcement litigation
- Represented a pipeline operator in the successful resolution of claims arising from an ammonia release that resulted in a fish kill.
- Representing a corporation with multiple facilities that is the subject of a national multimedia EPA enforcement initiative
- Represented a corporate target of a grand jury investigation under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. The investigation was closed without any charges being brought.
- Representing a former refinery operator in an action by the federal government to recover the costs of remediation of a former military facility allegedly contaminated by releases from the refinery.
- Wrote and submitted amicus briefs in the last two CERCLA cases before the Supreme Court, in the first (in Cooper Industries v. Aviall Services) on behalf of a number of industrial corporations and an environmental group, and in the second (United States v. Atlantic Research) on behalf of nine former senior officials at the Environmental Protection Agency.
- Represented creditors with substantial environmental claims in the Chapter 11 bankruptcies of Kaiser Aluminum, ASARCO and Delphi
American Lawyer Media and Martindale-Hubbell: 2013 Top Rated Lawyer in Energy, Environmental, & Natural Resources
Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business 2012 for Environment (DC)
The Best Lawyers in America 2012 for Environmental Law
Washingtonian's "Best Lawyers" 2011 for Environment
Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business 2011 for Environment
Washington, DC Super Lawyers 2011 for Environmental and Bankruptcy & Creditor/Debtor Rights
PLC Which lawyer? Yearbook 2011 - Recommended for Environment
Washingtonian's "Top Lawyers" 2007 and 2009 for Environment
Attorney General's John Marshall Award for Outstanding Legal Advice
The International Who's Who of Environmental Lawyers 2012
PLC Which lawyer? 2012 - Recommended for Environmental Law
The International Who's Who of Environmental Lawyers 2009 and 2011
Joel M. Gross "Classic Chapter 11 Reorganizations Versus Section 363 Sales and the Effects on Environmental Cleanup Obligations: The Choice After Apex Oil Co. and General Motors" (PDF: 352 kB) Norton Annual Survey of Bankruptcy Law, 2010 Edition
Joel M. Gross "The Supreme Court's Decision In Cooper Industries, Inc. v. Aviall Services, Inc. - What Do We All Do Now?" (PDF: 214 kB) MEALEY'S Pollution Liability Report, January 18, 2005
Joel M. Gross "The Effect of Bankruptcy on Obligations to Clean Up Contaminated Properties: Recent Developments and Open Issues Two Decades After Kovacs and Midlantic" (PDF: 212 kB) Norton Annual Survey of Bankruptcy, 2003
"Supreme Court Renders Decision in Sackett v. EPA" (PDF: 352 kB) Mar 2012
"Supreme Court Hears Clean Water Act Enforcement Case Sackett v EPA" (PDF: 957 kB) Jan 2012
"Landmark Supreme Court Decision" (PDF: 35 kB) May 2009
"Supreme Court Decides that Liable Parties Can Seek Cost Recovery Under Section 107 of CERCLA" (PDF: 133 kB) Jun 2007
"CERCLA Developments" (PDF) Nov 2006