City and County of San Francisco
In California's largest environmental settlement in 2006, we recovered $148 million in past and future cleanup costs for contamination at the San Francisco International Airport. The settlement with SFIA tenants included an innovative “pay-as-you go” program that allowed the responsible parties to reduce transaction costs and defer payment of cleanup costs until they are actually incurred.
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Kerr-McGee Corporation
We favorably settled a decade-long case on behalf of Kerr-McGee against the U.S. Government claiming that an order requiring Kerr-McGee to clean up an abandoned uranium mine was invalid and that the U.S. was liable for a share of the costs of cleanup. After a decade, the case settled with a remedy that cost a total of less than one quarter the original amount and with a significant contribution to that reduced expenditure from the United States and other parties.
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Santa Clara Valley Water District
We represented the Santa Clara Valley Water District in a CERCLA action concerning mercury contamination in the Guadalupe River Watershed and South San Francisco Bay. Through extensive engagement with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, we were able achieve to an expeditious resolution of claims by negotiating an agreement allowing our client and other PRPs to implement local restoration and enhancement projects in lieu of paying either compensatory damages or federal or state oversight costs or legal fees.
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SmithKline Beecham /Johnson & Johnson et. al.
On behalf of our clients, we won summary judgment in a Proposition 65 suit filed against SmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, and 15 other manufacturers, marketers, and retailers of Nicoderm CQ, Nicorette, and Nicotrol, smoking cessation products used to help people quit smoking. The lawsuit alleged that the pregnancy warning language on the products did not satisfy Proposition 65's requirements. The California Attorney General intervened on behalf of the plaintiff, but the California Supreme Court unanimously ruled in favor of our clients. The Supreme Court's decision was the first favoring a defendant's position in Proposition 65 action, the first holding that Proposition 65 could be and was preempted by federal law, and the first ruling that the State could not defeat preemption by requiring off-label advertising.
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The Pacific Lumber Company
We represented The Pacific Lumber Company and its subsidiaries in defense of an action seeking to overturn approvals and permits associated with Headwaters Forest agreement based on alleged failure to comply with Forest Practice Act, California Endangered Species Act, streambed alteration provisions of Fish and Game Code, and California Environmental Quality Act.
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Orange County Groundwater Litigation
Representing two companies in one of the largest groundwater contamination cases of its kind (TCE, PCE, DNAPL and perchlorate), involving a precedent-setting issue of whether a water district has the ability to create its own mini-Superfund. Obtained summary judgment for both companies.
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RCRA Contaminated Property Remediation Litigation
In one of the state’s largest RCRA cases set for trial in 2012, obtained cleanup and injunctive relief for solvent (toluene and methane) contamination on behalf of Newark Industries caused by a prior facility operator, and recovery of more than $1.1 million in attorney fees and costs.
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Metropolitan Water District of Southern California
Represent the nation's largest provider of treated drinking water in litigation challenging Biological Opinions issued by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service restricting operation of the State Water Project.
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Wild Equity Institute v. City and County of San Francisco, et al.
Defeated preliminary injunction and summary judgment motions that threatened to shut down the historic Sharp Park Golf Course, working pro-bono on behalf of the nonprofit defendant-intervenor San Francisco Public Golf Alliance (SFPGA). Environmental advocacy groups, led by the Center for Biological Diversity and the Wild Equity Institute, filed a lawsuit against the City and County of San Francisco seeking to shut down the Golf Course, alleging impacts to the California red-legged frog and San Francisco garter snake, both listed under the federal Endangered Species Act. Succeeded in getting the lawsuit dismissed after a U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Biological Opinion substantiated our argument that extensive studies and expert scientific analysis support the claim that protected species and public golf can (and, indeed, do) enjoy a symbiotic relationship.
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