Compliance Counseling
The Firm provides its clients legal counseling on compliance with the complex layering of state and federal environmental laws and regulations that apply to their businesses and transactions. Mr. Daggett’s service as a former enforcement attorney for a state environmental regulatory agency, as a Special Assistant State Attorney General, and as an Associate Regional Counsel for the federal Environmental Protection Agency during the first 10 years of his career gives him insights to the workings of such regulatory agencies, and helps him develop the credibility and rapport with government regulatory attorneys that is essential to negotiating more favorable resolutions of issues that arise.
The Firm’s legal counseling for clients sometimes does not include any contacts with regulatory agencies. This can include regulatory compliance audits by the Firm for manufacturing clients, or assistance with Phase 1 and Phase 2 environmental liability assessments for buyers or sellers of real property. Mr. Daggett’s BS in Chemistry and MS in Environmental Engineering in addition to his Law Degree particularly aids his effectiveness in managing the technical environmental consultants that are a necessary part of these efforts.
The combination of Mr. Daggett’s technical degrees and his experience with regulatory agencies is especially helpful, however, when the Firm’s clients must directly engage with the regulators. This often occurs when a real estate purchaser, or a lender, demands that the property owner obtain a “No Further Remediation” letter from the state regulatory agency before a transaction can proceed. It can also happen when a regulatory compliance issue leads to some “Notice of Violation” or other level administrative enforcement order short of civil litigation. Engaging a litigator without Mr. Daggett’s background and insight in such matters can lead to an unnecessarily confrontational interaction with regulators on issues where they have little flexibility, which can be severely counterproductive to a client’s interests. We combine a knowledge of when to compromise with a willingness to aggressively litigate when it best serves the client’s interests.
