Special Counsel to Municipalities and Public Agencies for Environmental Litigation

Since its founding, the firm has represented more than two dozen townships, municipalities, and authorities as counsel for environmental matters.  These engagements include representation of two of the largest cities in the country, as well as numerous counties, townships, school districts and authorities.  We have worked on a breadth of matters for our municipal clients such as litigation and remediation involving Superfund sites including a major contaminated sediment site; environmental permit challenges; cost recovery claims; large-scale storage tank releases; agency enforcement actions; toxic tort defense work; and litigation arising from the acquisition and sale of contaminated properties.  We understand the distinctive conditions under which governmental and quasi-governmental entities operate and work with solicitors, managers, planners, municipal staff and boards to achieve their specific institutional goals.

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Our involvement in litigation on behalf of municipalities and public agencies includes:

• Defending a public utility against a class action filed in state court seeking environmental testing, remediation, and medical monitoring of over 12,000 residences for an alleged “threatened release” of mercury during the removal of gas pressure regulators.
• Representing a school district in a private cost-recovery litigation in connection with an oil spill at an elementary school, resulting in investigation and remediation costs in excess of $1 million.
• Representing a municipal authority in a challenge to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection’s imposition of a connection moratorium.
• Successfully defending a federal Clean Water Act citizen suit filed against a municipal sewer authority, which was dismissed by the district court and affirmed on appeal. (P.E.D.F. v. Borough of Kennett Square, 175 F. 3d 1011 (3d Cir. Feb. 18, 1999)).
• Obtaining dismissal on behalf of a township of a federal citizen suit claim under the Clean Water Act relating to the township’s municipal storm sewer system. (Thompson v. Horsham Township, 576 F. Supp. 2d 681 (E.D. Pa. 2008)).
• Representing a Pennsylvania municipality in its permit challenge to prevent the expansion of a facility within its borders.
• Representing a school district in the defense of enforcement actions related to air and water quality in schools.
• Representing a Pennsylvania municipality in its efforts to convert a large, undesirable land use to a more productive use through air permit challenges and Alternative Dispute Resolution regarding existing contractual obligations.