Kasowitz’s litigators have extensive experience in the prosecution and defense of complex environmental litigation and in representing clients in regulatory proceedings concerning industrial, post-industrial and disposal sites requiring clean-up or other actions under CERCLA, RCRA and other federal and state laws and regulations. The firm is national counsel for environmental litigation and regulatory remediation for Fortune 500 and other companies in the chemical, mining and metal refining, natural gas and other manufacturing and distribution industries. The firm works closely with its clients and environmental engineers, toxicologists and remediation experts to develop cost-effective abatement and remedial action work plans and to aggressively litigate claims when necessary. The firm also has extensive experience in the oversight of environmental health and safety audits and reviews, the creation of effective audit and compliance management systems, and the analysis of and litigation regarding environmental insurance programs. The firm’s attorneys have spoken on environmental issues before numerous industry organizations, including the OSHA VPP Participants Association and the N.E. Environmental Prosecution Project.
Some of the high-profile environmental representations handled by the firm’s attorneys include:
- Southern Union Company, a natural gas provider, in four consolidated environmental contamination suits brought by 200 residents of Tiverton, Rhode Island, who alleged personal injuries, property damage and other consequential losses from contamination of residential soil by cyanide, arsenic, lead, tar and other pollutants. Plaintiffs claimed the pollutants were deposited on their land more than 50 years ago.
- Waste Management of Florida, Inc. in a cost recovery action for a substantial clean-up brought by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. After taking the FDEP's expert's deposition, the FDEP agreed to voluntarily dismiss its case with prejudice, without any payment of monies.
- 3,500 Alabama Residents, in what The Washington Post described as a "huge victory in a landmark environmental lawsuit" against Monsanto Company and its successor Solutia. This massive case concerned decades of PCB pollution in the vicinity of a Monsanto plant in Anniston, Alabama. After a 17-month jury trial in which the firm obtained $100 million in jury verdicts for a portion of the plaintiffs, the case ultimately settled with the firm’s clients receiving $170 million (after costs and fees).
- Allied Waste Industries in defense of the claims of several hundred residents of a rural community for wrongful death, personal injuries, and property damage as the result of alleged groundwater contamination near a sanitary landfill in Texas.
- Triple A Machine Shop in defense of an EPA and California Department of Toxic Substances Control action asserting CERCLA and RCRA claims relating to the Casmalia Disposal Facility.
- Kauai Island Utility Cooperative, the exclusive retail electric service provider for the Hawaiian island of Kauai, in an investigation and pending criminal and civil cases relating to alleged violations of federal endangered species statutes.
- Appleton Papers Inc. to recover from its comprehensive liability insurance companies for environmental liabilities arising from contamination of the Fox River in Wisconsin, one of the largest CERCLA sites in the country with clean-up costs that could exceed $600 million. API was sued by its general liability insurers in a declaratory judgment action in Wisconsin. At trial, the jury returned a unanimous verdict in favor of API. The court of appeals has since affirmed the jury verdict in its entirety.