San Francisco

Navigating California’s complex environmental regulatory regime.

Beveridge & Diamond’s San Francisco office represents clients throughout California, around the U.S., and worldwide on environmental and land use issues affecting their facilities, operations, and products. We also represent clients in litigation matters before California and federal courts. Clients benefit from our deep understanding of the interplay between California’s complex statutes and regulatory programs and federal environmental regulations and enforcement. 

Products Regulation

We are well-versed on the array of California regulations that impact companies’ products, including plastics, green marketing, material restrictions, and right-to-repair laws. We advise clients on California’s waste laws that impact electronic, hazardous, and food waste producers, and we counsel both industry clients and product stewardship organizations on the broad range of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) issues in the state. We regularly advise on requirements that impact or relate to product supply chains, including disclosures pursuant to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Conflict Minerals Rule and the California Transparency in Supply Chains Act.

Air & Climate Change

We routinely represent clients before the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and California’s Air Quality Management Districts (AQMD). Our practice includes rulemaking challenges, compliance counseling, handling enforcement matters, and GHG emission trading. We also advise clients on climate change initiatives, including California’s AB 32 program.

Project Development, Transactions, and Contaminated Properties

We assist builders, developers, property owners, and municipalities to secure project permits and approvals from federal and state natural resources agencies, and to defend project decisions and policies. We act as environmental counsel to sellers, purchasers, landlords, tenants, and lenders in commercial transactions involving facilities in California and around the country. We advise clients on environmental cleanups, including helping PRP groups and individual clients negotiate cost-sharing agreements and limit liability exposure at complex Superfund sites — and sediment sites in particular.

Litigation & Enforcement

We help clients manage and resolve environmental, commercial, and land use disputes. We are widely known for our toxic tort litigation expertise, and we regularly defend clients against environmental enforcement matters, with particular expertise in citizen suit cases under the Clean Water Act and other environmental statutes.