
The Environmental Department assists clients with a variety of undertakings, including: obtaining and protecting permits from the Alabama Department of Environmental Management; counseling on state or federal regulatory compliance and enforcement; and advising on environmental site assessments, remediation, and risk management for hazardous and other regulated substances. Our experience ranges from trial advocacy of environmental matters to general counseling for construction, engineering, and commercial development matters.
Representative clients include municipal authorities, industrial and commercial facilities, lenders, engineering and construction firms, and property owners/developers. For over a decade, we have served as general counsel to the Alabama Pulp and Paper Council, an industry trade group composed of Alabama-based pulp and paper companies with particular emphasis on environmental issues. Working for the Council and collaborating directly with state authorities, the Environmental Law Section has helped launch several environmental initiatives, such as the Title V Operating Permit program mandated by the federal Clean Air Act.
Department members have served on the Executive Committee and Editorial Board of the Alabama State Bar’s Environmental Law Section (Brooke Lawson), have chaired the Environmental Law Section of the State Capital Global Law Firm Group (Lister Hubbard), and have served as administrative law judges for the Alabama Environmental Management Commission (Jimmy McLemore). Section members also have represented the Commission in selected litigation matters, have engaged in environmental rule-making before state agencies, and have assisted in drafting environmental legislation beneficial to client interests.