Environmental Litigation

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The Environmental Litigation Practice at Morris, Manning & Martin is one of the leading practices of its kind in the U.S. Our lawyers routinely assist clients across the country with environmental considerations and their impact on business and corporate real estate. Redevelopment of contaminated properties hinges on liability, regulations, and financing. Our lawyers navigate a course through these obstacles and steer clients toward meeting their goals.

Negotiators and Litigators

Our lawyers address and solve environmental issues associated with every type of property, including steel mills, plating facilities, automobile manufacturing facilities, textile mills, military bases, ports, oil fields, shopping centers, landfills, timber assets, hotels, office complexes and residential developments. We develop mechanisms through which such properties can be purchased, financed, redeveloped and sold in an increasingly challenging market. This includes addressing environmental issues associated with distressed assets and, increasingly, port and infrastructure developments. Our lawyers possess broad based experience in issues associated with such developments, including Environmental Impact Statements and the permitting related to dredging and filling needed for port related expansions and development of other waterfront properties. We have also successfully negotiated and litigated broad-based environmental concerns, from cost recovery to insurance disputes. We deal on a daily basis with representatives of the EPA and their state counterparts and have resolved property rehabilitation issues for hundreds of environmentally impacted properties across the country, including Atlantic Station®.

Leadership Across the Field

Our lawyers are active in professional and regulatory circles, interpreting and drafting new regulations to guide business and industry toward creative new solutions. We serve as national environmental counsel for a number of major institutional clients. Our group includes lawyers with engineering and construction experience, an environmental specialist and a former state environmental regulator, adding technical and regulatory depth. We deal on a daily basis with representatives of the EPA, have developed close relationships with senior-level state regulators and regularly assist in developing cleanup standards that are realistic and cost-effective. We have developed brownfield legislation across the U.S. that engages local and state governments and provides economic and other incentives for redevelopment.

Focused on Solutions

Our lawyers concentrate on finding solutions to solve environmental risks while serving our clients’ business objectives. Redevelopment efforts proceed in combination with pollution cleanup, creating institutional-grade properties that become valuable business assets. Financing is secured with transferable liability protections. Our goal-oriented leadership on Atlantic Station® in Atlanta turned the nation’s largest brownfield site into a multi-use development that has earned the highest environmental accolades and the prestigious Phoenix Award. We are also actively involved on behalf of lenders in addressing distressed properties which suffer from environmental issues and in developing methods and strategies whereby the lender can realize upon its collateral. With environmentally compromised properties, land use, property values and corporate bottom lines are interwoven. Such disparate considerations can be overcome using the comprehensive expertise you will find in the Environmental lawyers at Morris, Manning & Martin.

Key Services:

• Negotiating risk allocation of environmental costs and liabilities
• Environmental insurance negotiations & claims
• Negotiations with state & federal regulators
• Litigation, arbitration, mediation and alternative dispute resolution in all state and federal courts and forums regarding environmental claims
• Negotiations of remediation agreements

Infrastructure, Energy & P3

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Morris, Manning & Martin is among the leading law firms in the U.S. providing counsel for project and infrastructure development, including public-private partnerships (P3) and privatizations. Our municipal and private sector clients know us not only for the depth of our infrastructure development experience, but also for our team of dedicated attorneys who can assist in taking a project from conception to completion. Our attorneys are highly experienced in all aspects of procurement, the underlying commercial transactions, public and private finance, regulatory compliance, permitting, tax structuring, land use and eminent domain. During the past 30 years, the team has represented clients in over 100 public-private partnerships, including the drafting and negotiation of over 100 design-build and design-build-operate contracts.

Whether you are seeking to find common ground among the many divergent project stakeholders, trying to navigate the maze of procurement approaches, contracting methods and permitting, or just figuring out how to finance your project, MMM’s Infrastructure and P3 team can help.

Our attorneys assist clients with:

• Enabling legislation
• Public finance
• Environmental due diligence, compliance and permitting
• Procurement methods 
  - Design-build (DB), design-build-operate (DBO), design-build-operate-finance (DBOF) and build-operate-transfer (BOT), hybrids, etc.
  - Traditional design-bid-build (DBB)
• Drafting, reviewing and negotiating project documents 
  - Engineering, Procurement and Construction Agreements (EPC)
  - Operation and Maintenance Agreements (O&M)
  - Power Purchase and Sales Agreements (PPA) 
  - Fuel Transportation Agreements 
  - Transmission and Interconnection Agreements 
  - Long-Term Ground Leases 
  - Asset Purchase and Sale Agreements
• Construction Litigation
• Zoning and Land Use

Our attorneys have represented a wide range of clients, from municipalities to private companies, in strategic planning, procurement, development, financing, acquisition, construction, and management and operation. Members of our team have represented almost 150 municipalities and governmental authorities throughout the U.S. and abroad, as well as dozens of private companies involved in all aspects of infrastructure development, operation and finance.

Our project development, infrastructure and P3 expertise spans many sectors, including:

• Renewable Energy and Conventional Fueled
• Solid Waste
• Independent Power (renewables and conventional power plants)
• Water, Wastewater, Desalination and Storm Water Management Facilities
• Electric Transmission and Distribution
• Light Rail
• Road, Bridge, Tunnel and Highway Projects
• Ports
• Educational Facilities
• Correctional Facilities
• Hospitality/Conference Center Projects
• Waste-to-Energy (municipal solid waste and alternative projects)
• Landfill gas
• Biomass
• Solar
• Wind
• Conventional Fuels (natural gas, coal, oil, etc.)
• Waste-to-Energy and other Conversion Facilities
• Landfills
• Material Recovery/Resource Recovery Facilities
• Transfer Stations

Every day we bring together a dedicated team of attorneys with a broad range of backgrounds, from transactional attorneys to attorneys specializing in energy, public finance, environmental, tax, corporate, construction, land use and eminent domain law.

Energy And Infrastructure

Our Energy attorneys represent a broad range of clients including co-generators, commercial and industrial energy consumers, electric cooperatives, financial institutions, independent power producers, marketers, municipalities, producers, and utilities. Our experience in energy law extends to the generation, interconnection, sale, purchase and transmission of electric power; the production, sale, purchase and transportation of natural gas, oil, coal, and coal-based products; and related financing, legislation, litigation, marketing, and regulation. In addition to providing innovative legislative and regulatory solutions, we structure and negotiate commercial transactions designed to both maximize enterprise value and increase competitive advantage. Our experience in environmental law extends to project planning, procurement, contracting for development and operation, permitting, tax structuring, financing (public and private), ground leasing and regulatory development and compliance.

Our practice encompasses all aspects of project development from conception to completion, including planning, partnership and corporate structuring; engineering; procurement; construction; financing; tax; operation and maintenance; fuel management; and related contract drafting and negotiation. Our attorneys have represented clients before the FERC and state utility commissions on matters involving project development, ratemaking, power purchase agreements, interconnection issues, electric market restructuring, rulemakings, RTO/ISO formation and transmission market operations, market-based sale authority, grid reliability issues and energy and capacity costs. We also have broad experience with PJM, NYISO, ERCOT, and MISO markets and programs, including eligibility, scheduling, aggregation and participation in energy, capacity, demand response and ancillary services markets.

Recognizing that our clients’ businesses are affected by diverse issues that vary by industry and location, our team develops effective solutions drawing on our experience and capabilities in areas that include:

• Fuels Purchasing
• Government Contracts
• Independent Power & Cogeneration
• Infrastructure Projects
• Construction Litigation
• Dispute Resolution
• Intellectual Property
• Project Development
• Project Operation
• Project Finance
• Regulatory
• Real Estate and Eminent Domain
• Renewable Energy
• Tax

Social Infrastructure & Public Private Partnerships (P3s)

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Successful social infrastructure projects need comprehensive legal advice and counsel from attorneys who have the market knowledge, technical and regulatory experience, and project management skills to support all aspects of the public private partnership (P3).  Our attorneys have extensive experience with the entire P3 process, from planning, procurement, development, permitting and financing, through design, construction and operation. This institutional knowledge enables our team to deliver creative, cost-effective and comprehensive solutions for the development of social infrastructure projects.

Our team uses a multidisciplinary, collaborative approach among many of the firm’s practice areas, including P3 and Infrastructure, Real Estate, Environmental, Construction, Tax, Government Contracts and Healthcare.  This allows us to bring industry depth and specialization to benefit our clients in the development of social infrastructure projects.  As a firm founded on real estate nearly 40 years ago, the firm’s Real Estate Development & Finance practice is a particular asset for the development of social infrastructure and P3 projects.  Our firm has closed hundreds of real estate transactions throughout the United States, as well as in Canada, Mexico and the Bahamas.  Our depth in all aspects of real estate law helps us guide our social infrastructure clients through the minefield of regulatory, environmental, financing and community issues and challenges that must be navigated to develop and close a successful project. 

We have successfully represented all types of clients on social infrastructure projects, including municipalities and public agencies, private developers, and financial institutions.  Our team advises on all phases of the project, from the initial concept, structuring and development, through procurement, financing, permitting, construction, operation and beyond.  In addition, our attorneys have been influential in structuring the transactions and drafting and negotiating sophisticated contracts that are used to help structure and complete these complicated transactions.

Our social infrastructure work includes P3 and other infrastructure projects in a variety of sectors, including:

• Social welfare and housing facilities (e.g., social/affordable housing, extra care housing, and adult social care facilities);
• Healthcare and medical facilities (e.g., hospitals, treatment centers and other health facilities);
• Educational and research buildings and systems (e.g., elementary and secondary schools, universities, colleges, and research institutions); and
• Civic and other facilities (e.g., convention and conference centers, hotels, etc.). 

In these projects, our attorneys provide advice to public and private clients during all phases of the infrastructure and P3 project implementation process, including:

• Initial conception and feasibility assessment;
• Procurement, including structuring, drafting and assisting in preparation or review of responses to RFQs and RFPs;
• Contract drafting and negotiation, including design-build, operation & maintenance, concession and development agreements;
• Site acquisition and development plans;
• Environmental clearance and permitting;
• Financial review and closing, including commercial and financial closures involving both short-term and permanent financings;  
• Litigation and dispute resolution, including issues relating to construction and/or operation; and
• Restructuring, refinancing, insolvency and other issues at critical junctures throughout the operations phase.

Our team also regularly advises clients on regulatory requirements, helps advise on matters to ensure compliance with environmental laws and public agencies’ regulations, assists in structuring and securing financing, drafts and negotiates concession, construction (design-build) and operation and maintenance agreements, provides counsel on tax issues that arise in connection with concession agreements and large infrastructure projects, and defends projects in litigation.  Through our experience working with public sector clients and the team’s established relationships, we add significant value in assessing the political landscape and risk, and in advising and communicating with key decision makers within federal, state and local governments throughout the project lifecycle.

Sustainability

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Our Sustainability Practice brings together the right team of experienced lawyers to proficiently meet or exceed the needs of "green" businesses. We stay a step ahead by embracing innovation, always expanding our knowledge and constantly finding better ways to help both new and emerging and mature and established businesses achieve their goals. Our entrepreneurial approach excels by focusing on bottom line results that accomplish the objectives of our clients.

We use a multidisciplinary approach to combine transactional experience and business acumen with the firm's resources in mergers and acquisitions, project development, project financing and related structured financing. Working together, our lawyers provide practical, thoughtful and informed advice on complex transactions, keeping our clients one step ahead of the competition. Our clients benefit from our lawyers' experience in managing, negotiating and executing intricate transactions in electric power, natural gas, LNG, transmission, manufacturing and renewable energy sources.

Renewable Energy

We provide a broad range of legal services to private equity, venture capital and other investors, financial institutions, developers, builders, project owners, energy services companies, engineering, procurement and construction firms and suppliers, and other vendors in the renewable energy sector. We have experience with:

• Biomass
• Fuel cells
• Geothermal
• Hydro
• Municipal waste
• Ocean wave/tidal
• Solar
• Waste to energy
• Wind

Our knowledge will guide you through the maze of complex issues involved with federal, state and local regulatory compliance, maximizing tax incentives and renewable energy credits, power transmission, commercializing technologies and protecting intellectual property and other assets.

Sustainable Growth and Clean Technology

We represent companies that are cutting-edge leaders in the efficient use of land, air and water resources, including the reduction or avoidance of environmental damage from greenhouse gases, hazardous emissions and waste materials. Our Sustainable Growth and Clean Tech Practice draws on our multifunctional capabilities to help businesses with green initiatives, including the development, installation and use of pollution control equipment, energy efficiency and electricity management systems and smart grid technologies.

Who are the practice's clients?

Lawyers in our Sustainability Practice represent a broad range of clients, including:

• Biomass and biofuel developers
• Clean technology firms
• Creators of pollution control and greenhouse gas reduction technologies
• Developers and operators of renewable energy facilities
• Energy efficiency technology companies
• Energy management companies
• Energy storage and transference
• Independent power producers
• Project finance and infrastructure companies
• Research universities
• Smart grid technology companies
• Sustainable real estate developers and operators
• Transportation and logistics businesses
• Venture capitalists, financial services companies, hedge funds and other investors
• Waste management and recycling companies

What kinds of services does the Sustainability Practice offer?

The Sustainability Practice offers full-service representation to our clients. We are able to use an integrated approach to tap into firm-wide resources and knowledge to achieve our clients' business goals. Our services include:

• Alternative financing arrangements
• Capital formation
• Engineering, procurement, construction and government contracting
• Environmental assessment and compliance
• Financing
• Intellectual property
• Leveraging economic development programs and incentives
• Mergers and acquisitions
• Real estate
• Regulatory compliance
• Strategic alliances/joint ventures
• Structuring new entities
• Sustainable development
• Tax structuring and credits
• Technology licensing and distribution

Our lawyers have the legal acumen necessary to advise you on tax credits and incentives, structure project financing, negotiate technology licensing and government contracts, provide legal protection for new technologies, and counsel clients in the application and protection of their patents, trademarks, and copyrights. A number of our Intellectual Property lawyers previously worked in the U.S. Patent Office as patent examiners, including a former U.S. Patent Examiner working in the unit that reviewed solar energy and photovoltaic patent applications and technologies. In addition, we provide counseling on the real estate, environmental and construction issues unique to projects incorporating smart growth concepts and/or sustainable development practices, including brownfield redevelopments and LEED™ projects. Several of our lawyers are LEED™ certified.

Representative Matters:

Corporate and Financing

• Counsel to a Southeastern U.S. technology company, the leading provider of advanced metering solutions for the energy and utility business. The company's core product enables energy and utility companies to communicate with electricity meters using wireless networks and the Internet.
• Counsel to one of North America's largest integrated manufacturers of 100% recycled paperboard and converted paperboard products, including acquisition of a fiber tube company, acquisition of a composite cans business, acquisition of a paperboard group, and sale of a packaging division.
• Counsel to micro wind turbine manufacturer on the development of its business plan, financing, corporate governance, marketing and sales.
• Counsel to wind power project developer on site selection and federal and state permitting, authorizations and regulatory approvals, financing, engineering, turbine construction and operations.
• Counsel to biomass producer on real estate, construction, legislative, financing and commercialization matters, including representation before federal and state agencies.
• Counsel to solar photovoltaic energy developer on approved applications for federal and state grants and loans, power purchase agreements and installation contracts.
• Counsel to advanced technologies company on applications for federal stimulus funding and state grants.
• Counsel to the developers of a system for processing landfill gas and converting it into useable natural gas capable of local energy generation or resale into the general gas distribution system, including representation of company in obtaining seed financing for research, development and product commercialization.
• Counsel to private equity fund in an initial preferred stock investment in a high efficiency solar photovoltaic manufacturing company based in Atlanta, Georgia.
• Counsel to an Atlanta-based company that provides economical, reliable, high efficiency energy solutions to help its customers take control of energy-related spending, including representation in securing of bridge financing and recapitalization, Series A preferred stock financing, sale of preferred stock and all corporate matters.
• Counsel to a Southeastern U.S. biorefinery company with revolutionary technology for converting biomass into ethanol and high-value biochemicals, including serving on the business advisory board and representation of the company in pursuit of federal and state grants and general business matters.
• Counsel to a natural gas power plant developer in site authorizations, state and local regulatory proceedings, and transactional matters.
• Counsel to a solar photovoltaic and thermal energy systems producer in raising investment capital, negotiating customer contracts and purchasing technology and equipment.
• Local counsel to a Düsseldorf, Germany-based international bank in senior financing for a 100 MGY corn ethanol plant in Southwest Georgia.
• Counsel to a Florida-based manufacturer of ultra-thin, flexible, solid-state electrolyte lithium polymer batteries in senior debt financing and convertible subordinated debt financing.
• Counsel to a large, Florida-based agribusiness company in the organization of participation as a market maker in the carbon cap and trade system.
• Counsel to a Northeast hydropower developer for the reopening and operation of a municipal hydroelectric plant.
• Counsel to a Mid-Atlantic biofuels manufacturer for the financing, permitting, construction and operation of a large scale biodiesel blending facility.
• Counsel to a multinational consumer products manufacturer for the $200 million non-recourse project financing of an industrial waste to energy operation, including the amended and restated bond purchase and guaranty term loan facility.
• Counsel on complex matters for renewable energy developers, including: business formation; organization and operating structures; securing funding and regulatory authorizations for large scale wind, biomass and geothermal energy production facilities; power purchase agreements (PPAs); renewable energy credits (RECs); carbon emission reduction contracts; and transmission access.

Environmental and Sustainable Development

• Lead environmental, real estate and construction counsel for numerous brownfield redevelopments across the country, including Atlantic Station™, selected by the EPA as one of the nation's best brownfield redevelopments. Other brownfield redevelopments include a former wood treating facility in South Florida; a former zinc mining operation near Vail, Colorado; two solid waste landfills and a harbor in Charleston, South Carolina; a former airplane manufacturing facility in New York; a former automobile assembly facility in Hapeville, Georgia; a former granite mine in Maryland; and a former textile mill in South Carolina.
• Counsel to a real estate private equity fund manager and an integrated operating and development organization that specializes in North American lodging and hospitality investments in the development of The Lodge and Spa at Callaway Gardens, a LEED™ certified development under LEED-NC 2.1.
• Counsel to several EarthCraft™ residential home developers and builders, including the nation's first exclusive EarthCraft™ home builder.
• Counsel to the sustainable development division of a leading Southeastern U.S. bank in the nation's first green affordable housing project.
• Counsel on the development, financing and commercial use of energy saving and cleantech building technologies, including transformational hardware and software advancements related to solar power, state-of-the-art biofuels, batteries and fuel cells.
• Counsel to the developers of a 20MW large scale solar project, including negotiation of power purchase agreements (PPAs), site selection, permitting and regulatory approvals, negotiation of property rights lease agreements, interconnection agreements and engineering and procurement/construction contracts (EPCs). Advised on securing financing and investor due diligence.
• Counsel to the developers of cellulosic biomass facilities in the U.S. and internationally, including financing, feedstock supply contracts, permitting and offtake arrangements.
• Counsel to a joint venture involving Chinese, Brazilian and U.S. companies creating a distribution network for petroleum and biodiesel involving rail transit.
• Counsel to an emerging growth firm developing advanced technologies for the production of butanol and other renewable chemicals from cellulosic biomass.
• Counsel to a joint venture between leading U.S. natural gas producers and distributors for the transportation and sale of liquefied natural gas (LNG), including the development of regional fueling station networks.
• Advise clients on cross-border wood pellet supply agreements.
• Represent several project developers in obtaining woody fiber, feedstock, site selection, fiber supply agreements and outtake contracts for biomass plants for use by domestic and international electric power generators.

Intellectual Property

• Counsel to a large China-based company, which purchased technology (with more than 120 patents and applications) from a U.S. company for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, in conducting patent due diligence in the area of the treatment of air pollution.
• Counsel to a leading Tennessee-based research university in the preparation and successful prosecution of a portfolio of patent applications for new types of heat transfer compositions with nanoparticle size conductive material powder. This technology has the potential to be used for energy conservation and efficiency.
• Counsel to a manufacturer of engineered lumber products and a leading research university in getting three patents allowed for a process of manufacturing fibrous products out of fast-growing fibers such as bamboo, jute, kenaf, hemp and other materials. The commercial end product for these fibers can include attractive and high-strength engineered lumber for construction and aesthetic building design, car panels, dashboards and other auto parts.
• Counsel to a leading Illinois-based research university in the preparation and successful prosecution of a portfolio of patent applications for new types of solar cells and related new materials.
• Counsel to a developer of patented technology that burns tires in a high-heat process to create electricity.
• Counsel to clients with respect to drafting and successfully prosecuting numerous patent applications in matters related to biodiesel, clean water (purification process) soil rehabilitation using biological methods, and reconsolidated or reconstituted wood products.

Tax and Nonprofit

• Counsel to a Georgia-based company in the business of the design, installation, maintenance and operation of hydrogen fuel cells, including the structuring of tax credit syndication for a large fuel cell system at Camp Pendleton Army Base (now in operation).
• Member of the Cleantech Committee of the American Israel Chamber of Commerce. The Committee's focus is the facilitation of business in the renewable energy, energy efficiency and water treatment and conservation industries.
• Pro bono counsel to a private-public consortium in a successful legislative initiative to create the first tax credit program in the State of Georgia for investment in renewable energy and energy efficiency projects.
• Counsel to an urban-based streetcar initiative in the organization of a tax-exempt entity. The initiative is focused on creating a pedestrian-friendly, live-work-play urban landscape intended to spur economic development along its path and reduce traffic congestion and pollution.