Environmental
Webster Szanyi offers a broad range of environmental law and general legal services.
Few areas of the law involve the emotionally charged atmosphere of an environmental proceeding. After all, we are all environmentalists. When the government exercises its power to target a corporation for "non-compliance" with the environmental laws, it can count on a sympathetic public to promote its cause. Pictures of factories, corporate moguls and reports of industrial pollution and disposal of hazardous wastes sell newspapers and strike enormous anger in the minds of the public.
The stakes are often enormous. The criminal penalties for environmental violations are severe and often are aimed at the highest ranking members of the company. The average superfund site costs in excess of forty million dollars to remediate. Neighbors to these sites often assert lawsuits claiming that the company's wastes caused them personal injuries and property damage. The costs in dollars, adverse public relations and employee morale can be devastating, not to mention the costs of legal defense.
The attorneys at Webster Szanyi have represented clients faced with these types of legal problems. We have defended clients successfully in the federal and state courts of
Businesses need effective prevention and strong advocacy when it comes to environmental law. Webster Szanyi attorneys offer both – counselors experienced in providing services, training and advice that help businesses prevent problems that can result in a future lawsuit and seasoned litigators. These cases are at times unavoidable, and we believe that proper environmental counseling concerning ongoing business operations and corporate transactions, including the purchase and sale of real estate, often amount to the ounce of prevention necessary to avoid future problems. It is our mission to work with our clients to develop and implement solutions that work and are cost effective and efficient.
The attorneys at Webster Szanyi have developed long-standing relationships with many of the attorneys and regulators who enforce the environmental laws. As a result of these relationships, these individuals recognize that Webster Szanyi's attorneys operate with integrity and are able to be trusted in their statements on behalf of their clients. As a result, we have been able to achieve negotiated solutions that otherwise would be difficult to obtain.
Tim Webster and Nelson Perel manage environmental matters at Webster Szanyi. Mr. Webster primarily focuses on RCRA compliance (including permitting), environmental quality reviews (including pursuant to NEPA and New York's counterpart SEQRA), Superfund matters (including investigations, PRP group participation, remediation issues and consent orders), Clean Water Act (and state counterpart) matters (including discharge permits and wetlands issues), oil spill matters, PCB issues, transactional issues (including environmental assessments and studies) and administrative proceedings (including zoning matters). In addition, through his twenty-four years of practice in the environmental field, Mr. Webster has addressed a broad spectrum of environmental issues and matters outside these core areas and provides active support on litigation matters.
Mr. Perel's expertise is primarily in the litigation aspects of Superfund matters (including multiparty cost recover and contribution actions), RCRA, oil spills, toxic torts, complex internal civil and criminal investigations, environmental enforcement and environmental insurance coverage. In his many years of practice, Mr. Perel has also addressed environmental issues in administrative contexts (e.g. zoning) and commercial litigation (e.g. patent litigation involving an environmental treatment process).