CHICAGO -- Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP is pleased to announce the formation of a Sustainability and Climate Change Practice to help clients address the challenges and maximize the opportunities created by sustainability requirements and initiatives affecting their businesses and investments. Nancy J. Rich, a Chicago-based environmental partner, will chair the new practice.
The interdisciplinary practice represents clients facing legal issues relating to sustainability and climate change matters, including waste-to-energy projects, carbon sequestration and trading, greenhouse gas liabilities and disclosure obligations, green building standards, tax credits, alternative energy project financing, regulatory analysis, renewable energy portfolio standards and water rights. The practice’s lawyers also assist foreclosing lenders, owners and developers in restoring value to their Brownfields and other environmentally distressed properties by developing programs to identify and pursue remedies from the companies who caused the contamination. The practice draws upon the considerable legal skill of Katten’s real estate, litigation, corporate governance, private and public finance, mergers and acquisitions, environmental, tax, insurance and intellectual property attorneys.
“With ‘going green’ becoming an economic mandate in the marketplace, and regulation continuing to increase at local, state and federal levels, strong legal counsel in the areas of sustainability and climate change has quickly become a must-have for our clients,” Ms. Rich said. “Our interdisciplinary approach in this area enables our clients to work closely with professionals across a wide range of practice areas to address the many ‘green’ issues that arise in their business dealings.”
Katten’s Sustainability and Climate Change Practice attorneys have broad experience addressing environmental and sustainability issues, including:
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representing owners, lenders and credit enhancers in energy projects, including a wood-fired electric power generation plant, a power plant fueled by poultry litter, a water treatment and desalination plant, ethanol production, treatment and beneficial reuse of livestock waste, and wind power generation;
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representing purchasers and sellers of massive tracts of timberlands;
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advocating on behalf of a major railroad on sustainability and greenhouse gas-related matters under state and federal laws;
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litigating a federal pre-emption matter under the Clean Water Act regarding a conflict between a sanitary district authorized to manage regional wastewater services and a private developer seeking to operate its own treatment plant;
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challenging the Environmental Protection Agency’s ethanol plant emission regulations in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia;
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advising boards of directors, board committees and senior management regarding sustainability-related strategic initiatives, corporate governance matters, director and officer liability protections and crisis management; and
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serving as the lead advisor in discussions and negotiations with the SEC and other federal and state government agencies.
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