The Environmental, Energy & Land Use Practice Group has vast experience in all areas of environmental laws and regulations, from the development and amendment of bills, laws and regulations to compliance with the same. In this respect, the McConnell Valdés Environmental, Energy & Land Use Practice Group provides the firms' clients with legal counsel and advice on environmental matters with a role in large and small domestic and international corporate transactions, permitting, compliance and regulatory representation and litigation as well as opinions and advocacy on legislative and rulemaking affairs. With this broad range of expertise, this Practice Group offers our clients with the specialized feedback necessary for an enterprise to make sound business decisions.
This Practice Group also has strong professional relationships with the various local and federal environmental agencies with jurisdiction over both private and public activities, including the Environmental Quality Board, the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources, the Solid Waste Authority, the Planning Board, the Regulations and Permits Administration, the Highway and Transportation Authority, the Puerto Rico Aqueduct and Sewer Authority, the Ports Authority and other local agencies. We also provide our clients with effective legal representation before the United States Environmental Protection Agency, the Army Corps of Engineers, the Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Marine Fisheries Service and other federal agencies. These relationships, combined with a practical understanding of agency procedures provide our clients with the resources necessary to see projects through to completion.
Our expertise in environmental matters also includes the gamut of federal and local environmental laws and regulations, including the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, CERCLA, water system compliance with the Safe Drinking Water Act, and the range of federal and local equivalent permitting and compliance requirements of the mentioned acts and the regulations promulgated thereunder. We also lead the legal field with our knowledge of matters of strictly local application, such as the Environmental Public Policy Act (local equivalent of the National Environmental Policy Act), the Uniform Administrative Procedures Act, and the assortment of local statues and regulations which mold business activity, and provide the firm's clients with the legal advice required to protect their interests to the fullest extent possible.
We have the tested and effective ability necessary to provide clients with excellent defense and negotiation advice as well. In the administrative forum our attorneys provide legal counsel to business organizations facing environmental liabilities and have successfully negotiated permit conditions and fees, the content of administrative compliance orders, remediation and mitigation plans, and other agency filings. We also provide our clients with legal advice and representation in the local and federal courts, where we zealously represent our clients in both the civil and criminal justice systems.
The Environmental, Energy & Land Use Practice Group's McV Alerts keep our clients abreast of legal developments in the ever changing field of environmental law. See our representative matters or contact us for more information.
