ON SHAKY GROUND?
When it comes to environmental compliance, it can be easy to feel
a little overwhelmed from time to time. To conduct business today,
most enterprises - whether private or public - face a daunting set
of complex environmental laws and regulations. These laws and regulations
encompass all natural media such as water (freshwater and marine),
air, soil, and sediments, as well as resources such as fish, wildlife,
timber, and agriculture. While compliance with these laws must become
routine to some degree, many areas remain open to new interpretations
or become the subject of regulatory focus. Very often, environmental
issues attract considerable public and special interest group attention
that may result in citizen suits.
Such environmental compliance issues require practical and often
highly technical solutions that are cost-effective. On occasion,
you may need to resort to administrative or civil litigation to
protect your interests.
WHY CHOOSE DWT?
Compliance with environmental laws requires careful attention to
procedural and substantive rules as well as scientific knowledge
of the issues at hand. DWT environmental lawyers have extensive
experience with a wide range of environmental laws, both as counselors
and litigators. Before joining the firm, several worked as engineers,
consultants, government officials and lawyers with responsibility
for environmental compliance and policy. We have developed close
working relations with regulatory agencies and environmental groups
so that we understand their issues and therefore have credibility.
They know us to be tough when needed, but practical and oriented
toward solving problems.
Diverse Client Base
Whatever your business, we've most likely been there. We represent
small, medium and large companies as well as individuals and trade
associations providing agriculture, timber production, manufacturing,
transportation, aquaculture, dairy farming, consulting, real estate
development, port management, commercial fishing, ocean cruises,
oil production, petroleum marketing, telecommunications, energy,
retail products, championship golf resort, financial and maritime
services. We also work with government bodies including counties,
cities, municipal water utilities, public development authorities
and port authorities. And we counsel non-profit organizations seeking
to protect environmental values through purchase of land and water
rights for preservation, as well as offsets for power plant emissions.
Prevention through Crisis Management
At Davis Wright Tremaine, we help clients stay ahead of the regulatory
curve. We counsel clients in proactive means of compliance with
new regulatory requirements at the federal, state and local levels.
We assist clients in obtaining new and revised permits to allow
their operations to grow while complying with complex requirements.
At DWT, we also assist clients with the environmental consequences
of acquiring and selling businesses and real property. Our work
ranges from simple land acquisitions to mergers with publicly traded
corporations. We counsel buyers, sellers and lenders in loan, real
estate, and business transactions involving property that is or
may be contaminated, with an eye toward minimizing liability.
We provide strategic counseling and implementation services to
secure governmental approvals for major infrastructure developments,
including industrial and municipal water supplies, fiber optic cable
installations, cell tower and switching stations, combustion turbine
electric power plants, and urban light rail systems. Such approvals
involve government at all levels and often require comprehensive
environmental impact analysis under federal and state law. Success
often hinges on strategies that are protective of sensitive natural
resources, such as wetlands and endangered species, while advancing
the client's goals.
DWT attorneys excel at litigating complex environmental issues.
We serve clients in administrative proceedings (federal, state,
and local), state and federal trial courts and courts of appeal.
In these cases, our lawyers work closely with experts on the environmental
issues at hand to present the very best case to the hearing examiner,
judge, or jury.
At DWT, we recognize the unique needs of each client. In an effort
to be cost-effective, we assemble customized teams of partners,
associates, legal assistants and experts to best address each client's
specific legal issues. Our lawyers stay abreast of emerging trends
in environmental compliance and policy on a broad range of environmental
issues.
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