GA not only has the experience of successfully representing clients regarding a broad range of environmental liability and toxic tort, it also has the in-house assets, such as deep scientific expertise and sophisticated document management systems, that are critical in such complex cases. Many of the cases GA has managed involved damage claims in the billions as part of class action litigation with hundreds of plaintiffs. Specifically, the firm has extensive Superfund experience, having been involved in litigation regarding the largest Superfund site in the United States.
The firm has advised clients in both legal and administrative actions involving most of the major federal and state environmental laws including:
- Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) or Superfund
- Clean Water Act (CWA)
- Clean Air Act (CAA)
- Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA)
- Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA)
- Oklahoma Environmental Quality Code
The firm’s expertise also extends to suits brought under Oklahoma common law involving public and private nuisance and negligence theories. The firm has particularly deep expertise in site remediation and issues of natural resource damage claims involving environmental impacts to property including flood waters, carbon tetrachloride, creosote, benzene, diesel spills and other contamination. Specifically, partners have worked extensively with the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regarding various toxic spills, cleanup efforts and EPA-monitored Superfund sites.
Their work also has included significant experience in the defense of toxic torts and environmental damage claims with a variety of exposure pathways, including inhalation, air dispersion, as well as water and soil contamination, and litigating cases involving the transfer of liability for the transportation of hazardous waste and natural resource damages following lead and zinc mining. This includes workplace and residential exposures, products related exposures and other complex exposure matters.
Moreover, their experience extends to litigation involving toxic torts and environmental impact on the person such as acute myeloid leukemia (benzene exposure), heavy metal exposure, diesel fumes and multiple myeloma.
Often cases such as these require subject matter expertise grounded in environmental science, which GA has readily available in-house. It also has honed its systems and processes to effectively manage the hundreds of thousands of documents that typically are involved in these complex legal and administrative actions.
