Practices

Environment and Natural Resources

Landye Bennett Blumstein counsels businesses, trade associations, government agencies, lenders, nonprofits, and individuals on all manner of environmental issues throughout the country with particular focus on Pacific Northwest and Alaska. Our extensive experience dates back to the earliest days of environmental law at the federal and state level. Our practice has been ranked by Chambers USA, and we also are recognized by Best Lawyers (twenty years) and Super Lawyers in Oregon.

We have represented clients on the top brownfield development projects in Oregon on all aspects, including project design, real estate acquisitions, environmental due diligence, and state and federal permitting. We have negotiated mitigation projects with EPA, the Army Corps, and state agencies to enhance wetland and wildlife protection consistent with appropriate development. We have advocated NEPA matters to facilitate timber development consistent with sustainable practice in wilderness areas.

Our lawyers work with technical and scientific experts on evolving issues in geophysics, hydrology, geology, air modeling, and human health and ecological risk assessment, to deliver a complete package for our clients’ purchases of contaminated real estate and other assets. On behalf of our institutional clients, we negotiated the first direct bona fide prospective purchaser agreement in the country with the U.S. EPA. We negotiate indemnities, pollution liability insurance contracts, and special agreements with government agencies to cap exposures to environmental liabilities associated with property ownership.

Our experience includes working with clients and their consultants to obtain and comply with environmental permits for new and existing facilities. We provide detailed practical advice on compliance with applicable federal, state, and local regulatory regimes. We manage audits to assure clients learn the rules before enforcement knocks at their door.

We have represented our clients successfully in federal and state courts in Oregon, Washington, California, and Alaska in significant litigation involving Superfund, the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Magnuson-Stevens Fisheries Management Act, MTCA, natural resource damages, and insurance coverage. We defend and prosecute actions as necessary to protect our clients’ interests in recovery or to secure payment when negotiation fails to produce resolution. We also have a proven track record of representing clients in enforcement matters in administrative hearings as well as judicial appeals of administrative and trial decisions.