Environmental Litigation and Enforcement

Shipman’s environmental litigators represent clients in administrative, civil and criminal enforcement and litigation matters across the full range of environmental sectors.  We vigorously advocate for our clients to resolve difficult environmental issues while keeping our focus on the client’s end goals.   

Our representation includes civil and criminal actions in the state and federal trial and appellate courts and before administrative agencies, including complex multi-party litigation, cost recovery actions, injunctions and equitable relief, negotiating consent orders and decrees, joint defense strategies, contested enforcement actions and permitting proceedings. 

We have wide-ranging experience in cases involving CERCLA/Superfund and RCRA and state law analogs, natural resource damages claims, common law claims, underground storage tanks and related petroleum product remediation, compliance investigations, self-disclosure under federal and state programs, and audits and environmental management systems.  We have longstanding relationships with local, regional and national environmental consulting firms and their experts and work efficiently and effectively to utilize the appropriate environmental expertise for each issue.

Our environmental litigators also regularly work closely with our transactional and real estate attorneys to investigate, negotiate and resolve latent and active environmental matters related to business disputes and corporate and real estate transactions.

Our representation includes:

• Defending clients in multi-party Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) actions
• Representing clients with Clean Air Act (CAA), Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), Clean Water Act (CWA) and other common law and statutory enforcement and litigation matters
• Responding to and contesting agency orders and notices of violation
• Defending against citizen suits, National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and state analog claims
• Pursuing cost recovery and clean up claims against prior owners, operators, neighbors and other responsible parties
• Defending clients on natural resource damage assessment and restoration claims
• Pursuing and defending claims related to state property transfer laws, including the Connecticut Transfer Act