Best Lawyers in America for Environmental Law
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Rodd has concentrated on brownfield transactions and compliance counseling across a variety of regulatory programs since joining the firm in 1997. He has extensive experience structuring environmental due diligence for real estate and business transactions, negotiating environmental provisions in transactional documents, and advising developers on satisfying state and federal cleanup programs and property transfer laws consistent with business objectives. For brownfield projects Rodd has nego...
John Boyd chairs Haynsworth Sinkler Boyd’s Environmental Group and practices in the areas of environmental, regulatory, administrative and general corporate law in Haynsworth Sinkler Boyd’s Columbia office. John's environmental practice includes permitting, enforcement, due diligence and risk assessment, real estate transactions, environmental audits, voluntary cleanup contracts, brownfield redevelopment and traditional issues surrounding toxic substances, hazardous and solid wast...
Valerie A. Moore is a top attorney recognized by Best Lawyers in the practice area(s) of Environmental Law and Land Use and Zoning Law. Valerie A., who practices law in Boston, Massachusetts, has been recognized since 2026. This recognition is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey, reflecting the high esteem in which Valerie A. is held by other top lawyers in the same geographic and legal practice area.
Mr. Stearns has extensive experience advising a broad range of clients in commercial real estate developments and managing the permitting, financing and development of office, residential and other commercial development projects. Such clients include developers, institutional investors, buyers, sellers, financial institutions, hospitals, securitized mortgage brokers, landlords, tenants and others involved in real estate and business transactions. Mr. Stearns has significant experience appear...
Steven J. Pace is an Attorney and Senior Vice President at S&I whose work focuses on environmental law, energy law, civil litigation and insurance law. Steve is listed in the Best Lawyers in America for Energy Law and Environmental Law. Steve is listed as a Great Plains Super Lawyer®--2009 and 2011 -- Environmental, General Litigation. Steve is a Fellow in the Iowa State Bar Association, the Iowa Academy of Trial Lawyers, and the American Board of Trial Advocates. Steve serves as sect...
Dwayne Johnson is an environmental law attorney at Kean Miller in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He represents clients on a wide range of environmental law matters, including air and water issues, solid waste, hazardous waste, underground storage tanks (USTs), wetlands , remediation under Superfund and RECAP, release reporting, incident response, and environmental permitting and enforcement. His practice also includes negotiating and implementing settlement agreements in class action and Superfund l...
Joseph R. Durham is a member of Eastman & Smith and has represented cities, counties, local health districts, solid waste management districts, townships and villages in environmental law and litigation and public health law. Mr. Durham has represented clients before the Ohio Department of Health, Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, Environmental Review Appeals Commission, Ohio Department of Commerce, Ohio Board of Pharmacy, Ohio Real Estate Commission, county boards of revision (real e...
Area of Emphasis Chip Babst is Chairman of the Firm and is a member of the Environmental and Energy and Natural Resources groups. Mr. Babst has more than 40 years of experience in providing counsel on environmental matters to both private and public clients. Mr. Babst is a nationally-recognized authority on Clean Air Act issues and has handled complex permitting and compliance issues at federal, state and local levels throughout the United States. His experience in dealing with federal and st...
Ms. Glass brings to Gibbons nearly two decades of experience in all aspects of environmental law. From litigation to corporate and real estate transactions, regulatory matters, insurance, sustainability, and environmental justice considerations, her practice has focused on providing timely, pragmatic, and thoughtful counsel to a diverse, sophisticated clientele. She possesses extensive knowledge of state and federal environmental statutes and regulations, including remediation standards and r...
Karen McGaffey's practice involves the full range of environmental issues. She assists clients with project development, permitting, compliance and regulatory matters under state and federal environmental and land use laws, including the National and State Environmental Policy Acts (NEPA/SEPA), the Clean Water Act (CWA), the Clean Air Act (CAA), and the Endangered Species Act (ESA). She represents clients in environmental litigation, including CERCLA and MTCA cost recovery actions, natural re...
Mike Chernekoff is a partner in the Litigation Practice Group. He focuses on environmental law, related areas of environmental litigation and toxic tort defense, and commercial and energy litigation. Mike’s practice centers principally on matters and businesses located in Louisiana and Texas. As a litigator, he develops and pursues effective dispute-resolution strategies in the context of investigations, trials, and settlement negotiations; as a counselor, he regularly helps clients ide...
Andy has more than 25 years experience in general environmental counseling and regulatory compliance, natural resource permitting, and land use permitting. He has served for more than 25 years as general counsel and has provided environmental law services on special projects to Maine municipalities. Andy is the Chair of the Environmental & Land Use and Municipal Law & Finance practice groups at Eaton Peabody. His practice concentrates on environmental compliance counseling, and repres...
Bob King has more than 30 years of experience in a variety of litigation and environmental matters, and has been widely recognized as a leading litigator and trusted advisor by clients and peers. Representative examples of Bob’s work can be found in the "Experience" tab. Bob also serves as the Firm's General Counsel and previously served as the Chair of the Firm’s Associates Committee. Bob has been honored by election as a Fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers. Bob has e...
Alison B. Torbitt is a top attorney recognized by Best Lawyers in the practice area(s) of Environmental Law. Alison B., who practices law in San Francisco, California, has been recognized since 2025. This recognition is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey, reflecting the high esteem in which Alison B. is held by other top lawyers in the same geographic and legal practice area.
Calm under pressure, dependable, and a true advocate for her clients, Mary is an experienced municipal and environmental law counselor. Having worked in the public sector for years before joining Bernstein Shur, she has a firsthand understanding of the issues faced by municipal and state employees and boards—and how to help her clients confront them. Her most recent public sector position was associate corporation counsel to the City of Portland, where she advised the city staff and cou...
Our Methodology
Recognition by Best Lawyers is based entirely on peer review. Our methodology is designed to capture, as accurately as possible, the consensus opinion of leading lawyers about the professional abilities of their colleagues within the same geographical area and legal practice area.
The Process
Best Lawyers employs a sophisticated, conscientious, rational, and transparent survey process designed to elicit meaningful and substantive evaluations of the quality of legal services. Our belief has always been that the quality of a peer review survey is directly related to the quality of the voters.