Emily advises domestic and international clients from a wide range of industries and businesses including real estate development and management (industrial, commercial, mixed-use and residential), real estate investment trusts (REITs), banks, institutional investors, municipalities, public authorities, utilities, energy companies, semiconductor manufacturing, ceramics manufacturing, mining, landfills, data centers, infrastructure development such as toll roads and bridges, as well as small business and individuals.

Emily has extensive experience with Phase I environmental site assessments, Phase II site investigations, permitting and compliance audits, vapor intrusion and indoor air quality issues, underground storage tanks (USTs), asbestos-containing materials, lead-based paint, mold, wetlands, flood hazard areas, air, water, landfill and hazardous materials permitting, climate change and renewable energy policies, threatened and endangered species, historical and other protected resources and environmental review processes under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), and the New York State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA).  

Environmental Transactional Work

Emily’s transactional practice includes real estate purchase, sale, and leasing, secured lending, mergers and acquisitions, energy project financing, asset and equity acquisitions, public-private partnerships, public financings, and bankruptcies.  She efficiently manages environmental, compliance, and health and safety due diligence assessments and quickly identifies potentially material risks.  Emily has extensive experience negotiating environmental issues in complex and sophisticated transactions and building environmental risk mitigation and management strategies that can include protective corporate structures, insurance policies, statutory defenses, indemnities, fixed price remediation or liability transfer agreements, and Brownfield programs.  Representative matters include:

• Secured Lending Counseling, United States.  Serve as lead environmental counsel for bank client, including managing environmental review for all collateral properties, evaluating compliance with the secured creditor exemption and innocent purchaser defense, managing Phase II environmental sampling investigations and negotiating consultant service agreements, loan documents, indemnity and guaranty agreements, and environmental insurance policies.  
• Sale of Contaminated Property, Los Angeles Area.  Advise municipality in sale of property with ongoing remediation and favorably resolve disputes on oversight agency under conflicting laws on future remediation obligations.
• Merger and Acquisition of Manufacturing Business, International.  Manage large-scale environmental diligence review and analysis of manufacturing facilities located in Brazil, Canada, the Czech Republic, the People’s Republic of China, France, Germany, and Sweden, and assist client with post-closing permitting obligations.
• Superfund Site, Florida.  Manage environmental, permitting and OSHA diligence review and compliance audits for purchaser of industrial manufacturing business operating on a Superfund Site and oversee post-closing corrective actions.

Hazardous Site Remediation

Emily counsels clients on strategic pathways for managing contaminated properties to achieve business objectives.  She manages environmental site remediation projects from start to finish, which includes vetting, retaining and overseeing consultants and engineers, advising on technical reports, managing relationships with oversight agencies and third parties, advising on reporting obligations and financial assurance requirements, negotiating service, access and settlement agreements as well as insurance claims and obtaining final agency closure.   Representative matters include:

• Coal Tar, Metals, and Solvents Site, New York.  Advise foreign client on its environmental indemnity obligations for a divested contaminated property subject to a New York State Department of Environmental Conservation cleanup action order and being evaluated by the U.S. EPA as a potential Superfund site.  
• Mixed Use Brownfield Redevelopment Project, San Francisco.  Negotiate a San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board cleanup order, municipal development approvals and related land use decisions, and environmental insurance policy on behalf of investor and developer clients.  
• Radioactive Contamination Site, New Jersey.  Engage and manage consultant to develop and implement response to potential emergency situation, advise on reporting, investigation, remediation and disposal obligations and worker health and safety concerns, and obtain closure from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.      

Enforcement Defense and Litigation Counseling

Emily advises clients on defenses and response strategies for notices of violations and agency enforcement actions, serves as joint defense group counsel for potentially responsible parties, negotiates cost recovery, cost sharing, tolling agreements and settlement agreements and advises on environmental litigation risks.  Representative matters include:

• Joint Defense Group Counsel, California.  Advise defendant in contribution action for disposal of drilling muds in landfill subject to Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board corrective action.  
• Notices of Violations, Minnesota.  Advise ethanol production facility on response strategies for notices of violations (NOVs) for air, wastewater, and storm water permits and a cleanup order and negotiate cost allocation with indemnitor.  

General Environmental Counseling

Emily advises clients on a wide range of environmental and regulatory issues that can arise in the course of business operations and planning, especially when there are changes in law or agency policies.  These issues include, but are certainly not limited to, development issues such as wetlands, flood hazard areas, protected species, historical resources, asbestos-containing materials, mold, vapor intrusion and land use requirements, permitting requirements and climate change.   

Prior to joining the firm in 2015, Emily was a senior environmental associate at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP in New York City and Washington, DC, and brings with her more than 10 years of environmental law experience.   Emily was previously a Christine Mirzayan Science & Technology Graduate Fellow at The National Academies of Sciences in Washington, DC, an Albert Schweitzer Fellow and an Equal Justice Fellow, as well as an AmeriCorps member with the New Jersey Community Water Watch.  Emily is a member of the New Jersey Chapter of Society of Women Environmental Professionals and the Brownfield Coalition of the Northeast.

Emily earned her B.A. from York College of PA in 2000, and her J.D. and Master of Studies in Environmental Law from Vermont Law School in 2004.