Environmental

At Locke Lord, our environmental lawyers focus on both the legal and practical aspects of environmental regulation. Our involvement extends beyond merely knowing the law — we also help shape the law as it develops and is applied. Our practice includes agency negotiation and advocacy for our clients at the federal, state and local levels across the United States. We write, speak and teach about environmental legal developments that affect our clients' businesses. As a result, companies frequently retain us as national environmental counsel.

Hands-On Experience

Because understanding and solving client problems in the environmental arena requires the exercise of both legal and technical skills, a lawyer with technical training has a decided advantage in assisting clients in this area. Our lawyers have hands-on experience and training in chemistry, biochemistry, environmental science, biology, marine biology, ecology and evolutionary biology and environmental engineering. Many have also worked in environmental agencies and/or environmental consulting firms prior to joining Locke Lord. This experience provides us with a deep understanding of the issues affecting our clients’ businesses and allows us to develop thoughtful and sophisticated responses to the environmentally sensitive issues our clients often face.

Locke Lord’s environmental practice is first and foremost a substantive one. Clients call upon us for practical and strategic guidance in managing their environmental issues, from simple and routine compliance questions to bet-the-company environmental enforcement, litigation or emergency response. We draw upon our substantive and technical knowledge to guide clients in establishing and maintaining regulatory compliance, developing and permitting major projects and improvements, negotiating with regulatory agencies, trying environmental lawsuits and contested case hearings, and managing environmental remediation and response liabilities. We also draw upon the insights and experience from our substantive practice to work closely with lawyers from our corporate, real estate and litigation departments on a wide range of environmental issues, bringing our environmental experience to bear on behalf of all of our Firm’s clients.