Environmental Enforcement and Litigation

Schiff Hardin LLP's Environmental Group litigates disputes on behalf of its clients against both governmental and private entities. We represent clients in both civil and criminal matters, in administrative proceedings and at the trial and appellate levels of the state and federal courts.

Enforcement

The firm has extensive experience in representing companies in enforcement actions brought by federal, state or municipal authorities, or by citizen groups through citizen suit provisions. We have defended clients in enforcement litigation involving air, water, or solid and hazardous waste statutes or Superfund matters.

We have negotiated administrative consent orders with federal or state environmental agencies for the investigation of current and former manufacturing facilities, and for the subsequent removal or remedial actions to address unacceptable risks from releases at the facility.

We have a wealth of experience in defending enforcement actions and investigations by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) relating to New Source Review (NSR) and prevention of significant deterioration (PSD) permitting issues. Schiff Hardin is among the very few law firms to have actually tried a case under the EPA's NSR enforcement initiative against the electric industry.

Schiff Hardin attorneys have defended clients in federal litigation under the Clean Water Act, including representation of an Illinois manufacturer in a federal enforcement action alleging several hundred violations of the effluent limitations in its National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit.

We also have significant experience in citizen suit litigation, having recently represented clients in citizen suits brought under the Clean Water Act and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.

In recent years, we also have represented numerous clients in state enforcement proceedings in Illinois, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Connecticut.

Private Party Litigation

We also represent clients in private party litigation. We have prosecuted and defended cost recovery lawsuits where disputes over responsibility for contamination among adjacent property owners is at issue. We have litigated state law claims for personal injury and property damage. We have also litigated contractual or quasi-contractual claims between current and former owners and lenders of real estate.

We recently obtained a defense verdict in favor of our client, an institutional real estate investor, in federal jury trial involving claims that our client had intentionally misrepresented in a sale transaction the environmental condition of industrial real estate.

We currently represent an Indiana manufacturer in a public nuisance suit alleging that historic waste disposal activities have adversely affected the groundwater in the community.