Representative Matters

Eric’s significant litigation outcomes include:

  • Leading nine-member joint defense group in high-profile CERCLA litigation in Los Angeles federal court; securing landmark ruling, worth nearly $1 billion, sharply reducing the geographic scope of alleged site.
  • Leading defense of nationwide solid waste services provider in defense of national class action campaign alleging commercial contract violations; defeating class certification in Florida and securing pre-certification dismissals in South Carolina, Colorado, and Arkansas.
  • Securing dismissal by EPA administrative law judge of EPA enforcement action in RCRA national enforcement initiative addressing the regulation of hazardous waste storage tanks.
  • Serving as co-lead counsel in largest alleged environmental citizen suit in U.S. history, a $4 trillion claim alleging coal dust release from rail cars in Washington State; one-week trial resulted in a highly favorable settlement.
  • Serving as co-lead counsel in landmark Lead and Copper Rule federal litigation against the City of Newark, New Jersey, over allegations of lead in public drinking water; two proposed injunctions denied and case withdrawn in favor of Newark’s own proposed technical and regulatory solutions.
  • Serving as co-lead counsel in a 6-week federal court trial that returned a verdict of no liability for a major global manufacturer in a $12 million cost recovery case involving the cleanup of PCBs in a historically industrial area of Boston.
  • Persuading a Washington, DC, court to enter one of the first preliminary injunctions in the country to enjoin cigarette smoking in a residential rowhouse on the basis of structural defects that caused heavy smoke to flow regularly into the interior of a neighboring property.
  • Defending a client in cross-claims resulting in a complete indemnification for judgment and defense from a fuel company of the owner of a gasoline service station in a $1 billion claim for damages from groundwater contamination following a fuel spill in Maryland.