Developing Solutions that Get Things Done Throughout the Southeast

Clients in businesses as diverse as textiles, chemicals, agriculture, automotive manufacturing and real estate development turn to McNair for solutions to their environmental regulatory challenges. We have a true regional practice, having represented clients in Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee and West Virginia, as well as throughout South and North Carolina. The breadth of our practice also enables us to serve as environmental counsel for several trade associations and their members. We have one of the largest environmental practices in the Southeast, and our insight matches our resources – for example, McNair environmental lawyers have written standard text chapters on Superfund law, Brownfields redevelopment, wetland law, and coastal management, have served as state and federal environmental regulators, hold leadership positions in leading professional organizations, and are recognized by their peers for inclusion in Best Lawyers in America ^® 2008.

McNair’s environmental lawyers provide you with thoughtful and prompt response to environmentally sensitive concerns, whether that involves litigating environmental claims, acting in contested administrative permit appeals or enforcement proceedings, establishing and maintaining regulatory compliance, or managing environmental issues affecting business and real estate transactions. Issues of environmental liability are often major concerns when assets, businesses, or companies are bought or sold. You can rely on our due diligence to identify environmental liabilities, then structure and document transactions in a way that protects you while ensuring completion of the deal. And if you need practical solutions for properties with hazardous waste or other contamination problems, you’ll get actionable ideas and approaches to risk reduction and cleanup.

Pursuing Cleanup Cost Recovery

Whether you are a plaintiff or defendant in private cost recovery litigation under CERCLA (the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act) , we can represent your interests. Our lawyers have defended potentially responsible parties (PRPs) against claims by the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for reimbursement of remediation costs, and defended prior property owners against CERCLA claims seeking to make them pay for future site cleanup and natural resource damages. Clients rely on us to defend them in numerous cost recovery actions alleging contamination and related damages brought by private landowners in federal and state courts. You also get help negotiating consent agreements and consent orders with federal and state environmental agencies.

How we Get Things Done
McNair’s environmental litigators make every effort to benefit our clients by reaching a settlement short of trial. In one such instance, for a client being sued along with other companies as a PRP for a contaminated site, we entered into a three-day mediation to resolve the issue. As the result of our negotiation the client received a settlement that was used to pay cleanup costs on property owned by our client.

Defending Environmental Lawsuits

You get the same environmental litigation defense skills applied to any environmental controversy in which we serve as your counsel. We can defend your company and individual executives and managers against claims alleging violation of major environmental statues such as CERCLA, Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, RCRA (the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act), TSCA (the Toxic Substances Control Act) and other statutes as well as in toxic tort claims and related common law actions. We have also successfully negotiated and mitigated claims brought against clients by the EPA, state environmental agencies and private parties.

How we Get Things Done
McNair defended a past owner of a manufacturing facility against a private action brought under the CERCLA statute. The current owner sought in federal court well over $10 million in cleanup costs and damages, but we demonstrated that provable damages were less than half that. On the second day of trial we reached a favorable settlement for less than the provable damages.

Resolving the Risks

If you own property contaminated with hazardous materials – either because they were disposed of there or simply were remnants of previous business operations – CERCLA makes you and any business operating on your property potentially liable for cleanup costs. We help purchasers of such property perform all appropriate inquiry to determine whether there is environmental risk, including both Phase I and Phase II Site Assessments. You’ll get reliable advice relating to current and past uses, hazardous substance exposures, past waste disposal practices and necessary remedial actions. Site remediation programs are always complex, and can be expensive and time consuming if not handled properly. If you seek to develop a Brownfields property, you can rely on McNair’s experience with numerous such projects.

How we Get Things Done
We counseled a client that purchased an abandoned and partially destroyed textile mill. If the mill had been subsequently torn down in order to develop the property, our client would have faced significant litigation over environmental liabilities. Instead we suggested a creative solution that preserved the structure’s foundation (and thus its technical integrity) , allowing the site to be redeveloped as a commercial and retail complex providing great economic benefit to the surrounding community.

Demonstrating Regulatory Knowledge

Although litigation is an important part of what our lawyers do, the avoidance of litigation is a significant concern to our lawyers. The foundation of skillful environmental liability defense is effective application of regulatory knowledge. You get an exceptional combination of regulatory, business and litigation experience applied to a full range of environmental services, all based upon our experienced handling of federal, state and administrative litigation.

We help our clients avoid litigation by advising them how best to comply with complex environmental statutes and regulations. Our environmental counseling experience includes environmental compliance audits, safety and health compliance audits, inspection and compliance reviews, permits and compliance under RCRA, Clean Air Act, and Clean Water Act, and effective negotiation with state and federal agencies, particularly as to permit terms and conditions.

Our lawyers have a full range of experience dealing with hazardous and solid waste issues as they arise under RCRA, both federal and state programs. We are involved with clients at municipal solid waste landfills and construction and demolition debris landfills as owners and operators, and with other clients as generators of wastes needing proper characterization and disposal.

We have special strength in coastal permitting issues, reflecting two of our team members' experience as Chief Counsel, Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management with the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (SCDHEC). Any environmental permit obtained from SCDHEC or the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers for development within the state’s eight coastal counties triggers a requirement for a coastal zone consistency certification, and we have the skill to guide clients through the full coastal zone consistency certification process.

We are particularly effective at demonstrating that a project is consistent with the policies and procedures of the Coastal Zone Management Program Document. And since water quality issues are particularly sensitive in the coastal zone, our team members are experienced in 401 water quality analysis. Environmental permits are necessary pre-requisites to all development approvals, so our goal is to secure permit approvals through the state and federal process as efficiently as possible so that our clients can obtain final plat approval, send their product to market and begin recouping their investments.

How we Get Things Done
Our lawyers have worked closely with local and state committees and SCDHEC to insure that air quality monitors in South Carolina are properly located. Proper location of air quality monitors ensures that representative sampling data are available to SCDHEC and the EPA as they need it to make informed decisions affecting our clients. This proactive approach assists our clients in avoiding a protracted permit application process, the inclusion of unnecessarily stringent permit limits and potential enforcement actions by environmental agencies.

Due Diligence

Numerous sellers, lessors, purchasers, investors, lenders and lessees rely on McNair in property transactions to determine current environmental compliance with federal and state environmental, health and safety laws, and related state property transfer disclosure laws. Your transactional needs will be handled by an interdisciplinary team conducting environmental investigations, environmental audits, and due diligence reviews. Whether the due diligence need is for developing an industrial project or completing a complex corporate merger or acquisition, you get practical advice on risk and cost allocation. Because we are thoroughly familiar with federal and state environmental regulations,we ensure that your proposed transaction meets all appropriate regulatory requirements – and can deal with any issues that come up after the deal is closed.

How we Get Things Done
In addition to doing environmental due diligence before a transaction, McNair regularly resolves problems after the deal is complete. For example, our client acquired a company through a stock purchase agreement. A current owner of a portion of the property where the company was located brought suit, seeking cleanup costs from our client. We negotiated with the property owner and ultimately reached an agreement in which our client cleaned up the disputed parcel for a cost substantially less than the owner had sought. For our client, it was a practical business solution reflecting the lowest reasonable cost.