Lauren Daniel is an environmental litigator handling a wide range of disputes, including actions under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), the Oil Pollution Act (OPA), the Clean Water Act (CWA), and state environmental laws. Ms. Daniel has particular expertise in natural resource damages (NRD) litigation and cost recovery and contribution actions under these statutes. In addition, Ms. Daniel helps advise clients with respect to environmental regulatory, permitting, and enforcement issues under various federal and state environmental statutes, with a focus on environmental remediation issues. She has previously served as Co-Chair of the American Bar Association's Superfund and Natural Resource Damages Litigation Committee.
Ms. Daniel also has an active pro bono practice and is a member of the firm's Pro Bono Committee. She has successfully assisted asylum seekers and undocumented immigrants with immigration matters, obtained a favorable settlement for an undocumented victim of police violence, and obtained relief for mentally ill prisoners subject to unconstitutional treatment in the Pennsylvania prison system.
Ms. Daniel graduated from Columbia Law School in 2012, where she was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar, the recipient of the 2012 Alfred A. Forsyth Prize for Qualities of Intellect and Self Dedication to the Advancement of Environmental Law and acted as President of the Columbia Environmental Law Society.
Experience
- BP in environmental matters relating to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Member of trial team that defended BP in Clean Water Act civil penalties trial, member of legal team that monitored natural resource damages and negotiated early restoration projects, member of team that negotiated settlement for both the Clean Water Act civil penalties and final natural resource damages claims brought by various government entities, and member of team that achieved mediated resolution of numerous private economic damages claims.
- Honeywell International relating to its Syracuse portfolio, including Onondaga Lake, one of the largest lake Superfund sites in the United States. The portfolio includes the successful defense of a lawsuit brought by a community group challenging methods employed in the remediation of Onondaga Lake, the settlement of NRD claims related to the site, the settlement of EPA cost recovery claims, oversight of remedy implementation, and negotiation and settlement of dozens of contribution and cost recovery claims, including claims against the United States for WWII contributions to the lake contamination.
- Multiple corporations in litigations related to alleged historic disposal of perfluorinated chemicals (PFAS) and other "emerging contaminants," including defense against personal injury, product liability, and public nuisance claims arising out of perfluorinated chemical contamination in groundwater.
- Several Fortune 500 companies in connection with environmental risk assessment, remediation of contaminated sites, real estate transactions, and environmental permitting matters. In particular, Ms. Daniel has represented clients in investigation, remediation and/or allocation at more than two dozen contaminated sites, including litigating allocation of cleanup costs at a number of sites across the US.
Perspectives
Recognition
Credentials
- J.D., Columbia Law School, 2012, Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar
- B.A., Claremont McKenna College, 2008, cum laude
- District of Columbia
- New York
- U.S. District Court, District of Columbia
- U.S. District Court, Northern District of New York
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
- Former Co-Chair, American Bar Association Committee on Superfund and Natural Resource Damages Litigation