Glaser Weil’s long, undisputed history as a powerhouse in high-stakes litigation — both in the courtroom and at the negotiating table — infuses our Environmental and Energy Department’s robust litigation practice. The Department’s attorneys are among the most seasoned and accomplished in the country, and have prosecuted and defended countless actions in both state and federal court. As a result, Glaser Weil has played an integral role in a number of high-profile cases, many of which have established key legal precedents under CERCLA, RCRA and the Clean Air Act.
True to the Glaser Weil name, every move this Department makes on behalf of its clients is geared to protect and advance their interests in a creative, aggressive, yet efficient and practical, fashion. While we never shy from taking a case to trial, clients rely on our proven sound judgment to know when negotiating will ultimately ensure their best outcome.
To ensure trial readiness, our lawyers become steeped in the most intricate details of each case — a modus operandi that allows us to devise optimal strategies to handle the knotty, and at times groundbreaking, matters, that often arise in the turbulent area of environmental and energy law.
As a result, our Environmental and Energy Litigation Practice extends to a broad array of other areas. The group’s attorneys have successfully represented clients in major CERCLA, cost recovery, RCRA, environmental insurance and toxic tort litigation, to name a few. Recently, our lawyers were selected to represent a water utility in a lawsuit alleging delivery of contaminated water, to defend a former shareholder of an aerospace concern in an environmental cleanup indemnity action, and to handle complex litigation relating to contamination of a major groundwater aquifer in the Los Angeles Basin. The Firm also handles major white-collar criminal matters related to environmental issues.
In addition, members of the Environmental and Energy Litigation team have advised clients in a number of actions centering on challenges as to the legitimacy of regulatory programs — from cases involving state waste laws to administrative agency adoption of emission standards for new motor vehicles.
The Department’s representation of a utility in a wrongful death action alleging the delivery of contaminated drinking water, highlights Glaser Weil’s experience with regulated water utilities, including the application of Hartwell v. Superior Court, the seminal California Supreme Court decision that limits the ability of plaintiffs to use Superior Courts as a venue to assert drinking water contamination claims against such utilities. One of our lawyers litigated the Hartwell case and briefed the California Supreme Court on behalf of one of the prevailing regulated water utilities.
Furthermore, the Firm has prosecuted and defended claims for environmental contamination of real property, including precedent-setting actions seeking to allocate liability among potentially responsible parties at state and federal Superfund sites.
Our record in recovering millions of dollars in cleanup costs for clients — from both responsible parties and insurance providers — has led some of the largest companies in the U.S. to turn to Glaser Weil’s Environmental and Energy litigators to defend them against environmental claims.