Michèle Corash has received the highest rating (Band 1) from Chambers USA for every year the directory has ranked environmental lawyers, and has been listed in Best Lawyers in America as a leader in the field of environmental law for more than ten years. She was named as the country’s #1 environmental lawyer on the “Top Ten Lawyers for Environmental Law,” US Lawyer Rankings 2008. California Lawyer Magazine cited her as one of the “Best of the West” because of landmark wins in two environmental court decisions. She is listed among Northern California’s top 50 female Super Lawyers, as well as top 100 overall. For the last five years she has been named to the Top California Women Litigators List by the Daily Journal. Ms. Corash was listed in Legal Media Group’s Expert Guides to the World's Leading Lawyers – The Best of the Best (a guide to the world’s 20 leading practitioners across 10 areas of law based on peer nomination). She is the Immediate Past President of the American College of Environmental Law.
Ms. Corash served as General Counsel of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from 1979 to 1982 and previously as Deputy General Counsel for the U.S. Department of Energy and Special Assistant to the Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission. As EPA General Counsel, she served on several White House task forces and was a member of the interagency committee of EPA, FDA, FTC, and the Department of Agriculture that dealt with regulatory issues involving food, drug, and other consumer products. Ms. Corash was also a member of Vice President Bush’s Regulatory Reform Task Force. Former California Governor Wilson appointed her to his Blue Ribbon Task Force for unifying and improving the state environmental laws.
Environmental
Ms. Corash has consistently been listed in American Lawyer’s Corporate Counsel among the “Best Lawyers in America for Environmental Law.” She represents companies on a broad range of national, international, and environmental issues. Her clients include companies in the electronics, consumer products, food and beverage, land development, construction, petrochemical, and defense industries, among others. She also works regularly with government agencies and legislatures in the development and implementation of environmental laws and programs.
Ms. Corash founded the environmental section of the Inter-Pacific Bar Association. In 1991, Ms. Corash chaired a conference in Hong Kong on Environmental Law in Pacific Rim Countries. She has since worked with environmental policymakers in Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines and represents clients on environmental matters in those and other countries around the world.
Consumer Actions/Unfair Competition
While Ms. Corash is recognized as one of the country’s leading environmental lawyers, a significant component of her practice in the last decade has been actions brought under state consumer and competition protection statutes, including false advertising and false claims statutes. She has defended clients in several hundred actions brought under California’s Unfair Competition and False Advertising Act, the California Legal Remedies Act, and Proposition 65. These have included cases litigated to judgment for her clients, as well as many successfully negotiated settlements.
Proposition 65
Ms. Corash is considered one of the nation’s leading experts on Proposition 65 ("Prop 65"), the California voter initiative adopted in 1986. She signed the ballot argument against the initiative and, since its adoption, has been the business community’s principal spokesperson on the statute and its implementing regulations. In naming her one of the 100 Most Influential Attorneys in California, the September 2002 California Daily Journal commented that “Corporate America calls on [her] to defend it against Proposition 65 lawsuits.”
Ms. Corash defended the first enforcement action brought under Prop 65, and she has defended hundreds of subsequent enforcement actions. These have included cases litigated to judgment for her clients as well as many cases successfully negotiated to settlement. She won the first defense verdict under the statute and has won every Prop 65 case she has litigated to judgment thereafter. These cases have involved food and other consumer products, chemicals, emissions from vehicles, ships and stationary sources, and agricultural products, among others.
Superfund and Hazardous Waste
Ms. Corash has been active in superfund and hazardous waste matters since 1980, when she helped draft the original superfund statute — the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act — and the first comprehensive federal hazardous waste regulations. She was one of two private lawyers subsequently appointed by the EPA administrator to evaluate the hazardous waste laws. Ms. Corash has testified before Congress and several state legislatures on the amending or writing of superfund and hazardous waste-related provisions. She also helped draft the hazardous waste laws of Thailand. She has represented clients at many of the country’s most controversial superfund sites, including the Lowry Landfill in Denver, the San Fernando Valley site in Burbank, the MEW site in Menlo Park, and Commencement Bay in Seattle. She recently won a substantial contribution from the United States government for the cost of cleaning up an abandoned mine in Oregon.
Litigation/Enforcement Actions
Ms. Corash has defended clients in numerous enforcement actions brought under a wide variety of state and federal environmental and toxics laws by attorneys general, district attorneys, and citizens’ groups. She has also brought and defended cost recovery actions.
Ms. Corash has represented companies in Resource Conservation & Recovery Act (RCRA) litigation and advised them on RCRA compliance, including the permitting, operation, and closure of treatment, storage, and disposal facilities. She has testified as an expert witness on RCRA closure requirements.
Ms. Corash defended one of California’s largest environmental criminal actions. She is currently defending two multinational companies in a lawsuit under the Alien Tort Statute, alleging their conduct overseas violated human rights and international environmental treaties.
Real Estate and Banking
In addition to representing clients in litigation matters involving the environmental liabilities associated with real estate investments, Ms. Corash has counseled lenders and those acquiring and selling properties on environmental issues affecting real estate transactions. She negotiated the first agreement ever entered by the EPA releasing a foreclosing lender and its successors from cleanup liability at a Superfund site. She successfully defended Bank One in federal court against claims asserting that, as trustee, the bank was liable for contaminated property held in trust. She also has represented Sanwa Bank in connection with similar claims.