A coordinated strategy for environmental and workplace health and safety issues can be vital to a business’s reputation, employee relationships, and bottom line. Jenner & Block’s Environmental and Workplace Health and Safety team looks at each client’s business as an integrated whole, helping manage the interplay between litigation, transactional, and regulatory needs. Our holistic focus helps clients proactively prepare for and efficiently respond to changing laws and regulations in this critical area.
Strong Defenses in Litigation
Our lawyers have extensive experience representing clients in federal and state litigation, including civil, criminal, and administrative actions. We are well-known for our success defending toxic tort property damage and personal injury lawsuits against clients in the manufacturing, aerospace/defense, transportation, industrial, chemical, and other industries. We have handled environmental, health, and safety disputes in a wide range of areas, including:
- Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA)
- Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA)
- Clean Air Act
- Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) and state equivalents
- OSHA Whistleblower claims
- Proposition 65
- White collar investigations by the Department of Justice and the Environmental Protection Agency
- Environmental mass tort and class action litigation matters
In addition, we frequently handle appeals of environmental and health and safety cases.
Integration Adds Value in Regulatory Compliance
As the environmental regulatory landscape evolves, we help clients comply with existing regulations and understand how new regulatory trends and developments may impact their businesses. By fully integrating into clients’ internal environmental health and safety teams, we can quickly facilitate regulatory compliance, identify issues before they rise to the attention of regulators, and look ahead for proactive compliance opportunities.
We are deeply committed to being at the forefront of environmental, health, and safety issues, and positioning our clients to comply with Environmental, Social, and Governance regulations and climate disclosure rules as these regulations and rules continue to develop and impact our clients.
Providing Confidence in Transactions
To manage deal risk, clients frequently rely on us to advise on the environmental impacts of potential transactions. Our environmental due diligence identifies and quantifies potential exposure associated with the environmental impacts of deals and with inherited risk from previous activity. We are particularly attuned to helping clients account for newer environmental risks, such as those associated with emerging contaminants, such as PFAS and 1,4-dioxane. We also provide critical guidance with respect to integration of new acquisitions as well as opportunities to take advantage of penalty mitigation in connection with self-disclosure of environmental, health, and safety issues.