Environmental Compliance & Permitting
Counseling & regulatory advocacy to help advance business goals
We’re here for you when you face
- compliance challenges with numerous and, sometimes conflicting, environmental requirements
- permit negotiations aimed at achieving optimum operating flexibility
- uncertainty about business decisions with potential environmental consequences
- unexpected events or obstacles threatening your company
We help you manage
- Identification of applicable regulatory requirements
- Preparation of permit application
- Developing comments on draft permits
- Preparation for public hearings/media responses
- Periodic self-audits and corrective actions
- Identification of best management practices
- Preparation for inspections/incident investigations
- Anticipation of new/proposed requirements
Interdisciplinary and diverse backgrounds
- Experienced attorneys well versed in federal and state environmental regulatory programs and administrative processes
- Former counsel to federal and state agencies on coastal environmental regulation and land use
- Former assistant in-house counsel to company supporting alternative energy options
- Member and former chairman of state agency funding conservation of over 250,000 acres in a Southeastern state
- Member of board of directors of Green Chamber of the South and Georgia Land Trust Service Center
- Leaders in influential environmental associations and in environmental committees for state and federal legal organizations
- Served as counsel to trade associations
Our clients range from Fortune 50 corporations to single-facility companies, including
- Manufacturing
- Aerospace
- Agricultural chemicals, maintenance vehicles, lawn equipment, and hand tools
- Appliances (commercial and residential)
- Automotive and automotive parts
- Biomass and other alternative energy producers
- Ceramics
- Chemicals and specialty chemical manufacturers, processors, and suppliers
- Consumer products
- Electrical and lighting
- Pesticides and pesticide devices
- Pharmaceutical drugs and devices
- Plastics and Polymers
- Recreational vehicles
- Textiles
- Commercial waste management and recyclers
- Asbestos
- C&D
- Coal ash
- Scrap metal
- Solid and hazardous waste
- Used oil
- Tires
- Waste-to-energy
- Construction
- Forestry and forest products
- Metal working, foundries, and metal coatings
- Mining
- Pulp and paper industry
- Residential and commercial real estate, including development
- Retailers
- Transportation
- Trucking
- Rail
- Utilities and other energy suppliers
Our environmental attorneys' decades of experience inform the judgment and guidance we share with you
- Legislative and regulatory developments and advocacy – monitoring, drafting comments, applying environmental laws and regulations as they have developed and matured; task force participation drafting and/or evaluating effects of proposed legislation and regulations
- Industry experience − wide range of industries served enables us to understand business interests and bring balanced perspectives
- Field experience − assisting clients in implementing compliance actions
- Thought leadership – articles, contributing to national environmental publications, speaking on important developments in environmental law; comments and white papers on state and federal statutes, regulations and guidance documents (since the 1980s)
- Industry and trade association initiatives − we work tirelessly to assist in efforts to maintain reasonable and effective environmental protections to help allow successful business operations
- Leadership − our attorneys serve in leadership positions in the American Bar Association (Section on Environment, Energy, and Resources; Section of Litigation; Business Law Section) and other national and state legal organizations
Our team’s judgment and practical know-how provide you with the support you want in identifying, weighing, and handling risks and liabilities
- Anticipating changes in air emissions programs and finding effective response strategies to comply
- Advising you about how proposed regulations and regulatory amendments will affect your operations
- Planning for permits for new manufacturing plants and heading off possible challenges
- Providing Innovative approaches to support sensible permit features
- Guiding internal audits, practices and programs to enhance compliance
- Investigating whistle-blower allegations
- Briefing the C-suite on complex environmental issues in understandable terms
- Evaluating and managing risks from non-compliance or accidental releases
- Teaming with industry groups with common interests
- Guiding reporting and clean-ups when spills occur or contamination is discovered
- Bringing in consultants with scientific expertise to supplement in-house resources
- Managing contamination at legacy sites
- Weighing in for you on regulations that are beyond an agency’s authority or that just don’t make sense scientifically
- Finding reasonable resolution to disagreements with agencies in compliance and enforcement matters
Experience
Following is a selected sampling of matters and is provided for informational purposes only. Past success does not indicate the likelihood of success in any future matter.
- Defended challenges to first air and hazardous waste permits issued for secondary lead smelter in over 25 years
- Numerous successful permitting efforts for green-field and expanding manufacturing facilities, including obtaining, and amending Plant-wide Applicability Limits for air emissions
- Obtained and defended challenges to Subtitle D commercial municipal solid waste landfill permits
- Successfully guided clients in numerous self-reporting efforts following internal audits
- Advised numerous manufacturers and distributers on labeling, false claims and transportation placarding requirements
- Secured manufacturer’s storm water discharge permit for aviation company constructing a 40,000 square foot hangar near wetlands surrounding airport
We help you manage
- Identification of applicable regulatory requirements
- Preparation of permit application
- Developing comments on draft permits
- Preparation for public hearings/media responses
- Periodic self-audits and corrective actions
- Identification of best management practices
- Preparation for inspections/incident investigations
- Anticipation of new/proposed requirements
Interdisciplinary and diverse backgrounds
- Experienced attorneys well versed in federal and state environmental regulatory programs and administrative processes
- Former counsel to federal and state agencies on coastal environmental regulation and land use
- Former assistant in-house counsel to company supporting alternative energy options
- Member and former chairman of state agency funding conservation of over 250,000 acres in a Southeastern state
- Member of board of directors of Green Chamber of the South and Georgia Land Trust Service Center
- Leaders in influential environmental associations and in environmental committees for state and federal legal organizations
- Served as counsel to trade associations
Our clients range from Fortune 50 corporations to single-facility companies, including
- Manufacturing
- Aerospace
- Agricultural chemicals, maintenance vehicles, lawn equipment, and hand tools
- Appliances (commercial and residential)
- Automotive and automotive parts
- Biomass and other alternative energy producers
- Ceramics
- Chemicals and specialty chemical manufacturers, processors, and suppliers
- Consumer products
- Electrical and lighting
- Pesticides and pesticide devices
- Pharmaceutical drugs and devices
- Plastics and Polymers
- Recreational vehicles
- Textiles
- Commercial waste management and recyclers
- Asbestos
- C&D
- Coal ash
- Scrap metal
- Solid and hazardous waste
- Used oil
- Tires
- Waste-to-energy
- Construction
- Forestry and forest products
- Metal working, foundries, and metal coatings
- Mining
- Pulp and paper industry
- Residential and commercial real estate, including development
- Retailers
- Transportation
- Trucking
- Rail
- Utilities and other energy suppliers
Our environmental attorneys' decades of experience inform the judgment and guidance we share with you
- Legislative and regulatory developments and advocacy – monitoring, drafting comments, applying environmental laws and regulations as they have developed and matured; task force participation drafting and/or evaluating effects of proposed legislation and regulations
- Industry experience − wide range of industries served enables us to understand business interests and bring balanced perspectives
- Field experience − assisting clients in implementing compliance actions
- Thought leadership – articles, contributing to national environmental publications, speaking on important developments in environmental law; comments and white papers on state and federal statutes, regulations and guidance documents (since the 1980s)
- Industry and trade association initiatives − we work tirelessly to assist in efforts to maintain reasonable and effective environmental protections to help allow successful business operations
- Leadership − our attorneys serve in leadership positions in the American Bar Association (Section on Environment, Energy, and Resources; Section of Litigation; Business Law Section) and other national and state legal organizations
Our team’s judgment and practical know-how provide you with the support you want in identifying, weighing, and handling risks and liabilities
- Anticipating changes in air emissions programs and finding effective response strategies to comply
- Advising you about how proposed regulations and regulatory amendments will affect your operations
- Planning for permits for new manufacturing plants and heading off possible challenges
- Providing Innovative approaches to support sensible permit features
- Guiding internal audits, practices and programs to enhance compliance
- Investigating whistle-blower allegations
- Briefing the C-suite on complex environmental issues in understandable terms
- Evaluating and managing risks from non-compliance or accidental releases
- Teaming with industry groups with common interests
- Guiding reporting and clean-ups when spills occur or contamination is discovered
- Bringing in consultants with scientific expertise to supplement in-house resources
- Managing contamination at legacy sites
- Weighing in for you on regulations that are beyond an agency’s authority or that just don’t make sense scientifically
- Finding reasonable resolution to disagreements with agencies in compliance and enforcement matters
Following is a selected sampling of matters and is provided for informational purposes only. Past success does not indicate the likelihood of success in any future matter.
- Defended challenges to first air and hazardous waste permits issued for secondary lead smelter in over 25 years
- Numerous successful permitting efforts for green-field and expanding manufacturing facilities, including obtaining, and amending Plant-wide Applicability Limits for air emissions
- Obtained and defended challenges to Subtitle D commercial municipal solid waste landfill permits
- Successfully guided clients in numerous self-reporting efforts following internal audits
- Advised numerous manufacturers and distributers on labeling, false claims and transportation placarding requirements
- Secured manufacturer’s storm water discharge permit for aviation company constructing a 40,000 square foot hangar near wetlands surrounding airport
- Substantial experience in matters involving state and federal air, water, waste, land resource, development and occupational health statutes and regulations
- Knowledge of who’s who in environmental regulatory agencies
- Prior industry experience
- Access to Nelson Mullins colleagues from other practice areas necessary to provide comprehensive evaluation of business needs associated with environmental representations
- Close partnerships with in-house counsel to understand what keeps them up at night and help them solve those problems
- Efficient staffing and favorable rates
