Jones Day - Services - Environmental, Health & Safety

Jones Day’s Environmental, Health and Safety practice is one of the most substantial in the world. Our practice lawyers help clients in the U.S. and abroad comply with complex laws and regulations pertaining to solid and hazardous waste, air emissions, water quality, and employee health and safety. We have extensive experience with the full range of environmental, health, and safety laws that relate to litigation, transactional, and regulatory compliance matters. Our clients' businesses have included those in the chemical, energy and power, oil and gas production and transportation, metals and mining, waste management, forest products, automobile manufacturing, real estate development and management, agriculture and animal feeding, medical, and food processing industries.

More than 38 lawyers based in offices throughout the U.S. and Europe concentrate on environmental, health, and safety legal issues, working as an integrated team with approximately 50 other Jones Day lawyers who focus on related areas such as real estate and property, toxic tort, insurance coverage litigation, and OSHA counseling and trial practice. Many of our lawyers have practiced environmental, health, and safety law since the onset of major federal environmental, health, and safety legislation in the early 1970s. Several have served in federal or state agencies, including the EPA, OSHA, and the Department of Justice, where they were involved in some of the most high-profile and precedent-setting environmental matters at the time.

Litigation

Jones Day has one of the most distinguished litigation practices in the world. That expertise includes the ability to handle the most complex and potentially costly environmental cases. Our lawyers, several of whom served as trial lawyers at the United States Department of Justice, have extensive litigation and trial experience. Work by our lawyers has included the defense of criminal and civil investigations and prosecutions in the U.S. and Europe, as well as litigation arising from private citizen suits, natural resource damage claims, Superfund cost recovery claims, public nuisance, class action and individual toxic tort claims. These cases routinely have involved a wide range of allegations involving claims of personal injury and property damage alleged to have been caused by a wide-variety of contaminants and a variety of environmental media. Given the scientific complexity of these matters, the experience of many of our lawyers in disciplines involving chemistry, ecological and human risk assessment, hydrogeology, engineering, and epidemiology complements the in-depth litigation experience our lawyers possess. As a result, practice lawyers possess an invaluable combination of skills and experiences from which our clients can draw. The richness of these talents has contributed to our success in defending toxic tort claims involving exposure affecting a large or indeterminate number of plaintiffs and property damage claims involving widespread environmental contamination. For example, our lawyers have successfully handled claims of personal injury and/or property damage resulting from exposure to various chemicals (e.g. vinyl chloride monomer, methanol, dioxins, lead pigments, beryllium, PCBs, dyes, benzene, TCE, carbon monoxide, diesel exhaust, coal tar products, pesticides, MTBE, radioactive waste). Finally, practice lawyers have successfully defended claims of contamination, injury or alleged violations of the law that are alleged to have resulted from catastrophic fires, explosions, spills and/or caused by our client’s alleged contributions to global warming. While our litigation experience is unparalleled and a major source of our strength, our lawyers have the experience and sound judgment to know when and how the client’s objectives can most appropriately be achieved through settlement. To that end, our lawyers have structured numerous creative settlements and pursued alternative methods of dispute resolution.

Transactions

Our lawyers have conducted due diligence in connection with hundreds of large and small business transactions for both public and private companies throughout the world. Sales, purchases, financings, refinancings, leasing, and other transactions involving industrial facilities and other real estate (including brownfields) require comprehensive evaluation of the regulatory, liability, and workplace safety and health issues that could affect the transaction. Our lawyers offer substantial experience in structuring and coordinating these types of investigations, including working closely with environmental consultants.

We are also familiar with all aspects of greenhouse gas emission responses, including the implementation of national and international emission reduction requirements and the development of practical solutions to the challenges created by increasingly complex environmental markets. Our lawyers have experience in the structuring, financing, and undertaking of emissions trading projects under the clean development mechanisms (CDMs) and joint implementation projects of the Kyoto Protocol, as well as identifying investment opportunities in clean energy fuel switching and renewable energy projects.

Energy Delivery & Power and Climate Change

Our environmental lawyers work with clients and our Firm’s Energy lawyers to develop practical means of addressing the significant regulatory uncertainties that confront power generators in meeting current and prospective control requirements for air emissions. We understand how these and other environmental requirements can affect asset values and the bottom-line results of operations. Moreover, protecting the environment is increasingly becoming a core business objective. Our environmental lawyers help power generators manage the challenges of a rapidly changing regulatory landscape.

We regularly counsel clients in all aspects of the permitting for new generating facilities and for projects at existing generating facilities, including environmental impact statements, water discharge permits, waste disposal authorizations, and air emission permits. Our lawyers help navigate the significant uncertainty that has been created by new or contemplated rules to address major sources, mercury emissions, NOx, regional haze, and even greenhouse gases. Our EU lawyers have a deep understanding of the requirements and opportunities presented by regulation of climate change emissions in Europe.

The failure of the U.S. Congress and federal regulators to resolve these issues has created an atmosphere ripe for inconsistent government enforcement and "regulation through litigation." In one recent instance, eight states, the city of New York, and two citizen groups, apparently dissatisfied with the manner in which the federal government was proceeding with regard to climate change, commenced suit against one of our clients and a number of other utilities, claiming that alleged carbon dioxide emissions from facilities owned by these companies, which are fully authorized, constitute both a public and private nuisance and contribute to global warming. Suits like these can be used by state, foreign, and other regulators to achieve objectives they otherwise cannot achieve through legislation or formal rulemakings.

In addition, we advise clients on environmental attributes and "green tag" trading under various U.S. state renewable portfolio standards, as well as the developing international infrastructure for the regulation of greenhouse gases, including the Kyoto Protocol and the U.K. and EU emissions trading schemes. In conjunction with our finance lawyers, we advise on:

Greenhouse gas management and related business planning to create competitive advantage.
Benefits of greenhouse gas emission reduction schemes and programs, including opportunities for national cross-border and global emissions trading, internal corporate-level trading, or bilateral trades between companies.
Forward trade prospective emission reduction units to provide additional revenue streams.
Identification of investment opportunities in clean energy, fuel switching, and renewable energy projects
SOx and NOx regulatory and trading schemes.

Compliance Counseling

Our clients, many of whom have large and capable in-house staff, frequently call on us to deal with a wide range of highly-sophisticated and cutting-edge matters where our knowledge, experience, judgment and discretion are the main reason for the call.

We routinely advise clients on the impact of ever-changing international, national, and local regulations covering solid and hazardous waste, air emissions, water quality, and employee health and safety. Our lawyers are familiar with requirements for permits, variances, and exemptions for new or existing facilities or processes; ergonomics; hazard communication; chemical process safety; routine and emergency reporting; waste management and disposal; hazardous waste cleanup; emissions banking; and day-to-day compliance matters. We also have experience in such diverse areas as labeling and packaging requirements, pollution prevention and recycling issues, material safety data-sheet requirements, community right-to-know laws, underground storage tank requirements, wetlands issues, pesticide registrations, premanufacture notification requirements, and responding to catastrophic industrial accidents.

Contact(s)

Kevin P. Holewinski
Washington
Tel: 1.202.879.3939
E-mail

Charles A. Perry
Atlanta
Tel: 1.404.521.3939
E-mail

Michael F. Dolan
Chicago
Tel: 1.312.782.3939
E-mail

John A. Rego
Cleveland
Tel: 1.216.586.3939
E-mail

Chris Papanicolaou
London
Tel: 44.20.7039.5959
E-mail

Françoise S. Labrousse
Paris
Tel: 33.1.56.59.39.39
E-mail

Thomas M. Donnelly
San Francisco
Tel: 1.415.626.3939
E-mail

	Print Page Email Page Select a Language Environmental, Health & Safety - Overview
Lawyers Staff Overview Experience Professionals Related Services News Publications Achievements Contact(s) Kevin P. Holewinski Washington Tel: 1.202.879.3939 E-mail Charles A. Perry Atlanta Tel: 1.404.521.3939 E-mail Michael F. Dolan Chicago Tel: 1.312.782.3939 E-mail John A. Rego Cleveland Tel: 1.216.586.3939 E-mail Chris Papanicolaou London Tel: 44.20.7039.5959 E-mail Françoise S. Labrousse Paris Tel: 33.1.56.59.39.39 E-mail Thomas M. Donnelly San Francisco Tel: 1.415.626.3939 E-mail	Jones Day’s Environmental, Health and Safety practice is one of the most substantial in the world. Our practice lawyers help clients in the U.S. and abroad comply with complex laws and regulations pertaining to solid and hazardous waste, air emissions, water quality, and employee health and safety. We have extensive experience with the full range of environmental, health, and safety laws that relate to litigation, transactional, and regulatory compliance matters. Our clients' businesses have included those in the chemical, energy and power, oil and gas production and transportation, metals and mining, waste management, forest products, automobile manufacturing, real estate development and management, agriculture and animal feeding, medical, and food processing industries. More than 38 lawyers based in offices throughout the U.S. and Europe concentrate on environmental, health, and safety legal issues, working as an integrated team with approximately 50 other Jones Day lawyers who focus on related areas such as real estate and property, toxic tort, insurance coverage litigation, and OSHA counseling and trial practice. Many of our lawyers have practiced environmental, health, and safety law since the onset of major federal environmental, health, and safety legislation in the early 1970s. Several have served in federal or state agencies, including the EPA, OSHA, and the Department of Justice, where they were involved in some of the most high-profile and precedent-setting environmental matters at the time. Litigation Jones Day has one of the most distinguished litigation practices in the world. That expertise includes the ability to handle the most complex and potentially costly environmental cases. Our lawyers, several of whom served as trial lawyers at the United States Department of Justice, have extensive litigation and trial experience. Work by our lawyers has included the defense of criminal and civil investigations and prosecutions in the U.S. and Europe, as well as litigation arising from private citizen suits, natural resource damage claims, Superfund cost recovery claims, public nuisance, class action and individual toxic tort claims. These cases routinely have involved a wide range of allegations involving claims of personal injury and property damage alleged to have been caused by a wide-variety of contaminants and a variety of environmental media. Given the scientific complexity of these matters, the experience of many of our lawyers in disciplines involving chemistry, ecological and human risk assessment, hydrogeology, engineering, and epidemiology complements the in-depth litigation experience our lawyers possess. As a result, practice lawyers possess an invaluable combination of skills and experiences from which our clients can draw. The richness of these talents has contributed to our success in defending toxic tort claims involving exposure affecting a large or indeterminate number of plaintiffs and property damage claims involving widespread environmental contamination. For example, our lawyers have successfully handled claims of personal injury and/or property damage resulting from exposure to various chemicals (e.g. vinyl chloride monomer, methanol, dioxins, lead pigments, beryllium, PCBs, dyes, benzene, TCE, carbon monoxide, diesel exhaust, coal tar products, pesticides, MTBE, radioactive waste). Finally, practice lawyers have successfully defended claims of contamination, injury or alleged violations of the law that are alleged to have resulted from catastrophic fires, explosions, spills and/or caused by our client’s alleged contributions to global warming. While our litigation experience is unparalleled and a major source of our strength, our lawyers have the experience and sound judgment to know when and how the client’s objectives can most appropriately be achieved through settlement. To that end, our lawyers have structured numerous creative settlements and pursued alternative methods of dispute resolution. Transactions Our lawyers have conducted due diligence in connection with hundreds of large and small business transactions for both public and private companies throughout the world. Sales, purchases, financings, refinancings, leasing, and other transactions involving industrial facilities and other real estate (including brownfields) require comprehensive evaluation of the regulatory, liability, and workplace safety and health issues that could affect the transaction. Our lawyers offer substantial experience in structuring and coordinating these types of investigations, including working closely with environmental consultants. We are also familiar with all aspects of greenhouse gas emission responses, including the implementation of national and international emission reduction requirements and the development of practical solutions to the challenges created by increasingly complex environmental markets. Our lawyers have experience in the structuring, financing, and undertaking of emissions trading projects under the clean development mechanisms (CDMs) and joint implementation projects of the Kyoto Protocol, as well as identifying investment opportunities in clean energy fuel switching and renewable energy projects. Energy Delivery & Power and Climate Change Our environmental lawyers work with clients and our Firm’s Energy lawyers to develop practical means of addressing the significant regulatory uncertainties that confront power generators in meeting current and prospective control requirements for air emissions. We understand how these and other environmental requirements can affect asset values and the bottom-line results of operations. Moreover, protecting the environment is increasingly becoming a core business objective. Our environmental lawyers help power generators manage the challenges of a rapidly changing regulatory landscape. We regularly counsel clients in all aspects of the permitting for new generating facilities and for projects at existing generating facilities, including environmental impact statements, water discharge permits, waste disposal authorizations, and air emission permits. Our lawyers help navigate the significant uncertainty that has been created by new or contemplated rules to address major sources, mercury emissions, NOx, regional haze, and even greenhouse gases. Our EU lawyers have a deep understanding of the requirements and opportunities presented by regulation of climate change emissions in Europe. The failure of the U.S. Congress and federal regulators to resolve these issues has created an atmosphere ripe for inconsistent government enforcement and "regulation through litigation." In one recent instance, eight states, the city of New York, and two citizen groups, apparently dissatisfied with the manner in which the federal government was proceeding with regard to climate change, commenced suit against one of our clients and a number of other utilities, claiming that alleged carbon dioxide emissions from facilities owned by these companies, which are fully authorized, constitute both a public and private nuisance and contribute to global warming. Suits like these can be used by state, foreign, and other regulators to achieve objectives they otherwise cannot achieve through legislation or formal rulemakings. In addition, we advise clients on environmental attributes and "green tag" trading under various U.S. state renewable portfolio standards, as well as the developing international infrastructure for the regulation of greenhouse gases, including the Kyoto Protocol and the U.K. and EU emissions trading schemes. In conjunction with our finance lawyers, we advise on: Greenhouse gas management and related business planning to create competitive advantage. Benefits of greenhouse gas emission reduction schemes and programs, including opportunities for national cross-border and global emissions trading, internal corporate-level trading, or bilateral trades between companies. Forward trade prospective emission reduction units to provide additional revenue streams. Identification of investment opportunities in clean energy, fuel switching, and renewable energy projects SOx and NOx regulatory and trading schemes. Compliance Counseling Our clients, many of whom have large and capable in-house staff, frequently call on us to deal with a wide range of highly-sophisticated and cutting-edge matters where our knowledge, experience, judgment and discretion are the main reason for the call. We routinely advise clients on the impact of ever-changing international, national, and local regulations covering solid and hazardous waste, air emissions, water quality, and employee health and safety. Our lawyers are familiar with requirements for permits, variances, and exemptions for new or existing facilities or processes; ergonomics; hazard communication; chemical process safety; routine and emergency reporting; waste management and disposal; hazardous waste cleanup; emissions banking; and day-to-day compliance matters. We also have experience in such diverse areas as labeling and packaging requirements, pollution prevention and recycling issues, material safety data-sheet requirements, community right-to-know laws, underground storage tank requirements, wetlands issues, pesticide registrations, premanufacture notification requirements, and responding to catastrophic industrial accidents. Contact(s) Kevin P. Holewinski Washington Tel: 1.202.879.3939 E-mail Charles A. Perry Atlanta Tel: 1.404.521.3939 E-mail Michael F. Dolan Chicago Tel: 1.312.782.3939 E-mail John A. Rego Cleveland Tel: 1.216.586.3939 E-mail Chris Papanicolaou London Tel: 44.20.7039.5959 E-mail Françoise S. Labrousse Paris Tel: 33.1.56.59.39.39 E-mail Thomas M. Donnelly San Francisco Tel: 1.415.626.3939 E-mail