Success Stories
In a significant victory for longtime B&D client Waste Connections, the Eastern District of Louisiana denied class certification in a high-stakes odor nuisance action concerning the Jefferson Parish Landfill. Ictech-Bendeck v. Waste Connections Bayou, Inc. The Waste Connections defendants successfully opposed a sprawling proposed class, which sought to represent residents over a 42-square-mile area alleging odor nuisances spanning 30 months.
This decisive win caps nearly seven years of litigation on the class issues and underscores the importance of strategic opposition to class certification in complex environmental nuisance actions.
B&D provided counsel to the DOJ-appointed Independent Corporate Compliance Monitor and Auditor in Volkswagen’s criminal plea agreement stemming from the company’s scheme to sell diesel vehicles containing software designed to cheat on U.S. emissions tests. B&D’s former Chairman served as Deputy Monitor - Emissions & Environmental in this high-profile, large-scale international assignment. B&D attorneys helped assess whether Volkswagen’s compliance and ethics programs were reasonably designed and implemented to prevent and detect violations of anti-fraud and environmental law, including Clean Air Act Title II mobile source emission compliance. B&D attorneys also oversaw an extensive multi-site, multi-entity, multi-continent audit and made recommendations to assist the company’s environmental compliance and management efforts, including helping to implement a revised environmental management system suitable for worldwide operations.
