Joe is Chair of the firm’s Environmental Department and focuses his practice on complex multiple party environmental litigation and dispute resolution. Joe’s particular expertise is creative pursuit of responsible parties under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA). He has twice won cases against the United States on the useful product defense.
Described by his peers in Chambers USA as a “real fighter, a bulldog litigator (and) the attorney of choice for some of the toughest cases nationally,” Joe has tried cases involving pipeline accidents, environmental criminal prosecutions and disputes over high-rise office building fires and nature preserves. He successfully argued one of the largest CERCLA cases in the country involving the spinoff of nearly 1,000 parcels of former railroad property.
Joe’s environmental practice spans 30 states and several Fortune 100 companies. He began handling nationwide litigation involving environmental contamination after joining Monsanto Co. in 1974. Twelve years later, Joe left Monsanto and started the Environmental Department, which is one of the largest environmental practices in the country.