Keesal, Young & Logan serves as environmental counsel to international oil, chemical, manufacturing and transportation concerns. Both civil and criminal liabilities are addressed by the firm’s environmental team approach. Keesal, Young & Logan’s team of seasoned civil and white-collar criminal litigators also have extensive experience with casualty investigation, crisis response and regulatory compliance.
The firm prides itself in offering sound, practical and business-friendly assistance with environmental regulatory compliance matters. The firm’s attorneys represent clients in matters involving oil and chemical spills, soil and ground water contamination, transportation and disposal of hazardous wastes, air emissions, remediation and assessments of superfund sites and other environmental liabilities. The firm’s environmental attorneys have considerable experience working with federal and state trustees on natural resource damage assessments, remediation and compliance with clean-up and abatement orders. The firm also defends personal injury and property damage claims arising from exposure to pollution and other environmental hazards.
Most environmental statutes now provide for criminal sanctions. Corporations, and even corporate executives, can be subjected to criminal prosecution not only for contributing to pollution and other environmental hazards, but also for failing to report such hazards. The firm has a long history of providing representation to companies with environmental issues and has an Emergency Response Team capable of responding to any environmental emergency, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Former federal and state prosecutors from our white-collar criminal defense team manage the government’s investigation while at the same time conducting an internal investigation to facilitate informed decision making by company executives.
Keesal, Young & Logan has successfully represented public agencies, oil companies, and developers in the defense of environmental actions. Specifically, we have defended the City of Long Beach, the Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners, the City of Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Board of Harbor Commissioners with respect to actions challenging Port development projects. We have represented the Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority in connection with various CEQA and NEPA claims advanced by municipalities concerned with the impact of growth and expansion at both the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach. We represent cruise lines with respect to their compliance with the many environmental laws, including waste management and pollution reduction issues. We have represented large oil companies with tank farm leaks and addressed the legal impacts associated with the resultant ground water contamination. The firm represented the City of Long Beach in its negotiations with the Department of the Navy to resolve environmental clean-up and disclosure issues following the closures of various government facilities, including the Naval Hospital in Long Beach. Additionally, the firm has served as counsel in connection with third-party Oil Pollution Act claims against the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund, and successfully obtained the first multimillion-dollar verdict from various third parties under the Oil Pollution Act.