Alternative Dispute Resolution Neutral Services

Our legal and technical experience in both arbitration and mediation matters has made our firm a logical choice when parties are searching for an experienced and knowledgeable neutral to help resolve their environmental, land use or energy disputes. Founding partner Joe Manko and John Gullace have worked together on a number of large and complex alternative dispute resolution (ADR) matters in which MGKF had been retained to act as the neutral. Our team offers trusted perspective where a third-party neutral is needed, based on decades of experience in all aspects of environmental counseling and litigation. 

John Gullace has nearly three decades of experience in private practice as an environmental litigator. John has also received neutral training through Conflict Prevention Resolution (CPR).

Joe Manko has more than 50 years of experience as an environmental lawyer both in government (as Regional Counsel for U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region III) and in private practice. He has spoken on ADR at various forums and CLE programs and was a lecturer-in-law on various environmental subjects, including ADR, at the University of Pennsylvania and Vermont Law Schools for more than two decades.

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MGKF practitioners have provided neutral services in the following representative matters:

• Retained for a mediation between two large corporations over whether a facility that had just been sold could comply with applicable Clean Air Act requirements. This matter involved a detailed analysis of the Clean Air Act requirements as applied to the facility in question and the application of this analysis to a complex transactional document.
• Provided mediation services to several municipalities and municipal authorities that were members of a joint regional wastewater treatment plant regarding the proper allocation of capital and operating expenses, as well as the allocation of capacity and user charges among the participants.
• Mediated a dispute between two large multi-national corporations regarding responsibility for wastewater treatment issues at a plant in Puerto Rico that was part of a large multi-site transaction. The arbitration required an interpretation of the indemnity terms of the acquisition agreement.
• Mediated a dispute between two large corporations regarding responsibility for PCB contamination of river sediments arising from manufacturing operations. The subject of the arbitration involved an interpretation of a pre-CERCLA indemnity agreement under New York law.
• Mediated a dispute between two large corporations regarding responsibility for chlorinated solvent contamination that had spawned a number of legal proceedings. The four-day arbitration hearing involved a number of experts on a myriad of complex technical issues and the award required an in-depth analysis of contractual indemnification provisions and their application to complicated corporate structures.
• Provided mediation services relating to the adequacy of a due diligence investigation done by an environmental consultant in the context of an acquisition of petroleum-impacted property.
• Mediated a dispute between the seller and purchaser of a former manufacturing site that involved the question of seller’s responsibility for hazardous substances that were not discovered in due diligence.
• Mediated and arbitrated various claims involving allocation of costs of remediation for waste disposal sites among potentially responsible parties.
• Mediated a claim by the United States against its former contractor for alleged contamination on one of its facilities.
• Mediated and arbitrated claims under purchase and sale agreements (for real estate and businesses) relating to real estate and environmental issues.
• Provided mediation services disputes regarding EHS (Environmental, Health and Safety) compliance issues.
• Mediated disputes regarding remediation issues (Superfund/CERCLA, RCRA and state remediation programs) and contract issues arising from M&A transactions and other contractual matters involving environmental issues.