Named an American Lawyer Litigator of the Week in March 2021 and a Law360 MVP in environmental law in October 2023, Eric is a veteran environmental litigator with a practice encompassing all areas of environmental law. Based in B&D’s Boston office, Eric is focused on defending clients in complex environmental litigation, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) litigation, Superfund litigation, environmental class actions, toxic tort litigation, federal and state enforcement actions, and citizen suits. He represents major companies and municipalities in litigation under the Clean Water Act (CWA), Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA or Superfund), Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), Clean Air Act, and their state analogues. He has tried cases and handled appeals in state and federal courts across the country, representing clients before juries, trial and appellate courts, arbitrators, and administrative tribunals.

Eric is an experienced litigator in PFAS claims, and is currently representing Massachusetts’ largest biosolids manufacturer in the commonwealth’s largest PFAS litigation, a toxic tort class action and statutory cleanup claim in Worcester spanning six cases (and counting) across state and federal courts.

Superfund litigation is a cornerstone of Eric’s practice, and he has led litigation teams at some of the nation’s most significant CERCLA sites, including Los Angeles, Portland Harbor, and Onondaga Lake near Syracuse, New York. In 2022, Eric led a nine-member joint defense team through trial in federal court over one of the most high-profile contaminated sites in California history and secured a landmark CERCLA ruling that sharply reduced the geographic scope of the alleged site, reducing his clients’ potential liability by nearly $1 billion.

Eric also leads teams defending commercial and environmental class actions, including putative nationwide and statewide class actions targeting industrial facilities with negligence and nuisance claims based on alleged community impacts to air, water, and property. In 2023, Eric defeated certification of a proposed statewide class in Florida federal court, alleging commercial contract violations against a nationwide solid waste services provider, and secured dismissal of similar contract claims in federal courts in Colorado and Arkansas. In 2021, he achieved similar results, before class certification, in two proposed federal class actions: one in Pennsylvania involving alleged odor nuisance claims against a landfill, and another in South Carolina involving alleged commercial contract violations.

Eric also helped lead the successful defense of two of the country’s most significant environmental citizen suits in recent years: a $4 trillion CWA suit filed against a major U.S. transportation company and a landmark SDWA suit against the City of Newark, New Jersey, involving alleged lead contamination in drinking water. AmLaw Litigation Daily recognized him as Litigator of the Week for this work.

He also litigates in administrative forums. In a challenge to a nationwide U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) federal enforcement initiative regarding hazardous waste storage tanks under RCRA, Eric persuaded an EPA administrative law judge to reject the agency’s own interpretation of its regulations and to dismiss an enforcement action against Eric’s client, a manufacturer of personal care products.

Eric is an experienced trial lawyer who is unafraid to take cases to trial when favorable resolutions are not possible. In addition to the CERCLA trial noted above and a follow-up trial in the same case, his notable trial results include securing a complete defense jury verdict in Boston federal court on multimillion-dollar environmental cost recovery claims and trying a weeklong CWA case in Seattle federal court involving alleged unauthorized pollutant discharge into Washington waterways. Eric also regularly defends victories – and when appropriate, challenges adverse rulings – in state and federal appellate courts across the country.

In addition to his environmental work, Eric serves as the firm’s Deputy General Counsel and maintains an active pro bono practice focused on civil rights and environmental conservation matters. He is especially proud of his longstanding service on B&D’s Pro Bono Committee, both as a former chair and now as the Committee’s liaison to B&D’s Boston office. He also served for many years as adjunct faculty at The George Washington University Law School, teaching trial and appellate advocacy. In 2024, he led a team from B&D’s Boston office in developing an environmental mock trial program in the Boston Public Schools. Prior to his legal practice, Eric served as a judicial law clerk at the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. He speaks and writes regularly on environmental litigation, including in Natural Resources & Environment, the journal of the American Bar Association’s Section on Environment, Energy, and Resources (ABA SEER).

Eric’s core professional belief spans his careers in education and law: success lies in making complex subjects simpler.