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Environmental Litigation

Contacts

Mark E. Elliott
Partner, Los Angeles
T: +1.213.488.7511
Matthew W. Morrison
Partner, Washington, DC
T: +1.202.663.8036
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Pillsbury’s award-winning Environmental Litigation team is known for successfully resolving high-stakes, contentious and precedent-setting environmental matters both at trial and on appeal.

Combining deep scientific knowledge with high-level regulatory experience and exceptional litigation skill, Pillsbury’s environmental litigators offer the focus of a boutique environmental practice backed by the resources of a full-service global law firm. Many of our lawyers are former in-house counsel and environmental agency lawyers. Steeped in the complex worlds of both litigation and regulation, we offer strategic perspective and cost-effective solutions to legal and regulatory challenges.

Recognized as among the best environmental lawyers in the U.S., we thrive on resolving novel and hard-to-solve problems and have an impressive record of success in trial and appellate courts, before regulatory bodies, and through arbitration, mediation, and negotiated settlement. Our environmental team represents individuals, companies and associations across industries, including energy, manufacturing, pharmaceutical, transportation, chemicals and retail, in civil and criminal cases, and administrative matters under all the major federal environmental statutes and the laws of many states. We are at the forefront of environmental issues in the appellate courts, handling some of the most important environmental cases.

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Pillsbury represents clients regarding the full range of environmental litigation challenges they face, including federal, state and private party lawsuits under all the major environmental laws, such as:

  • The Clean Air Act
  • The Clean Water Act
  • The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA)/Superfund)
  • The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA)
  • The Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA)
  • The Endangered Species Act (ESA)
  • The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)
  • The Occupational Health and Safety Act (OSHA)
  • The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA)
  • California’s Proposition 65

Pillsbury’s environmental litigation experience also encompasses toxic tort litigation, rulemaking challenges, zoning, land use and permitting lawsuits.

Representative Experience

  • Represented Teck Metals Ltd. in developing and successfully negotiating what has been called a “historic” transnational agreement with the EPA and DOJ in a cross-border contamination case involving discharges from a mining and smelting facility in Canada.
  • Defeated novel attempt by environmental organizations to expand scope of federal environmental laws to claim locomotive diesel emissions at a client-operated rail yard violated RCRA.
  • Handled Endangered Species Act issues of first impression in litigation relating to impacts on two species of sturgeon in connection with relicensing of dams on Yadkin Pee Dee River in North Carolina and South Carolina in connection with two Duke Energy hydropower facilities.

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  • CERCLA
    • Represented Whittaker Corporation in federal CERCLA litigation over the liability and allocation of response costs to the United States of America resulting from its defense contracting activities over the past 50 years with Whittaker Corporation and its predecessors.
    • Defended CERCLA cost recovery actions in California, Georgia, Missouri, South Carolina, Texas and multiple other states.
    • Represented a client in a CERCLA investigation regarding the Mammoth Mill site by the U.S. Forest Service.
    • Successfully litigated and advocated for a defense contractor and other parties in CERCLA actions and related appeals stemming from solid rocket fuels use and disposal on defense contracting sites.
  • Clean Air Act
    • Represented the Coalition for Clean Air Implementation, a group of trade associations challenging an environmental organization’s effort to reopen several Clean Air Act regulations affecting the coalition’s members.
    • Won a unanimous decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit in a challenge to EPA’s stringent new standards regarding permissible air emission levels when incinerating sewage sludge.
    • Assisted the Renewable Fuels Association in addressing issues arising under EPA’s Renewable Fuels Program, including a challenge to EPA’s 2014 – 2016 Renewable Volume Obligations.
    • Represented Air Products in enforcement proceedings initiated by U.S. EPA for air toxics emissions from Air Products’ Calvert City, Kentucky, facility.
  • Clean Water Act
    • Represented the metallurgical coke making industry in a challenge to EPA’s effluent limitations guidelines for the iron and steel source category.
    • Defended forest products company in a Clean Water Act citizen suit in federal district court brought by an environmental group claiming stormwater violations.
    • Advised railroad on an EPA Clean Water Act enforcement action stemming from emergency repairs to flood damage in the Desert Southwest, and on developing an HCP to protect endangered species.
  • TSCA
    • Defended Santa Monica Malibu School District in a precedent-setting California District Court Toxic Substances Control Act action regarding PCB in school building materials pitting TSCA policies’ compliance against strict statutory interpretation.
    • Represented multinational defense, security and aerospace client in responding to EPA enforcement action regarding PCB materials regulated under TSCA.
  • Endangered Species Act
    • Successfully represented Brookfield Renewable Energy in litigation filed by environmental groups regarding Endangered Species Act claims at four hydropower plants in Maine.
  • Other Matters
    • Won denial of plaintiffs’ preliminary injunction request seeking shutdown of thousands of California’s oil wells based on contamination risk. This win preserved California’s energy supply and avoided billions in costs.
    • Achieved victory for environmental underdog with a damages award of 3.5 times court-determined restoration costs plus $300,000 in attorneys’ fees, sending a strong warning to would-be conservation easement violators.

Practice Area Highlights

  • Pillsbury is recognized as among the most feared law firms for litigation by BTI Consulting Group. 
  • Pillsbury’s Environmental practice ranked by Chambers USA in the National (2009-2024), California and Washington, DC, categories (2004-2024).
  • Recognized by The Legal 500 U.S. for excellence in Environmental Litigation (2016-2024), Environmental Regulatory (2019-2024) and Environmental Transactional (2024).

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  • Home to two of the “World’s Top 25 Environmental Lawyers,” according to Euromoney.
  • Achieved Best Lawyers’ Tier 1 national Environmental Litigation and Land Use and Zoning Law rankings; nationally ranked for Environmental Law; and nationally ranked for Natural Resources Law (2025).

Resources

Brochure

Environmental

2024 MOST FEARED FIRMS

BTI Consulting recognizes Pillsbury as one of the most feared law firms in litigation.

Factsheet

Natural Resources Damages

Factsheet

Decommissioning, Abandonment and Removal of Offshore Oil Platforms

Factsheet

Climate Change Litigation

Case Study

Preserving California’s Energy Supply

Case Study

Victory for an Environmentalist Underdog

Case Study

(VCLF) Prevailing at Trial Against a Determined Plaintiff

Case Study

(WSPA) New Oil & Gas Permitting Process Withstands Litigation Onslaught

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