Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher’s environmental lawyers counsel U.S. based and multi-national corporations, trade associations, coalitions, municipalities and individual clients on environmental law issues throughout the country.  We provide our clients with a wide range of environmental regulatory and compliance services with experience in all aspects of environmental, energy and resources law, including compliance counseling, administrative proceedings, enforcement and legislative matters relating to all of the major environmental laws and regulatory schemes. Our environmental attorneys have extensive expertise handling complex environmental issues, including those related to the permitting and operation of facilities, the regulation of products, the management of solid and hazardous wastes, the investigation and remediation of contaminated properties and governmental reporting obligations.  On the regulatory side, we represent clients in agency rulemakings and legislation.  We have assisted clients in establishing environmental compliance programs and preparing for government inspections.  We also work closely with land use attorneys in our real estate group where zoning, entitlement, conditional use and other land use permitting issues interact with environmental issues.

In addition, we represent the regulated community in connection with the development and subsequent promulgation of environmental regulations by various government agencies. We have drafted proposed regulations, prepared and submitted comments in connection with the proposed regulations and litigated adopted regulations. Similarly, on the legislative side, our lawyers represent clients’ interests with respect to the evolution of environmental laws. We have drafted proposed environmental legislation, prepared and offered testimony before legislative committees and related government hearings, and presented clients’ concerns directly to individual legislators. 

Our substantive capabilities encompass all areas of environmental law, including the significant federal statutory/regulatory programs listed below, most of which are administered by the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Most states, of course, also have their own environmental programs, which in some cases like California impose even more stringent requirements than the federal regulations.  Our attorneys counsel clients about state and federal environmental programs including:

• CERCLA or Superfund and its State Analogues
• The Clean Air Act
• The Clean Water Act
• The Coastal Zone Management Act
• The Emergency Planning and Community Right To Know Act
• The Endangered Species Act
• The Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act
• The National Environmental Policy Act
• The Oil Pollution Act of 1990
• The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act
• The Safe Drinking Water Act
• The Toxic Substances Control Act