Overview

"The best way to think of our firm is a collection of overlapping niches"

Our work is concentrated in a few areas centered around environmental law. The following diagram illustrates these overlapping practices and their degree of interrelatedness:

Approximately 80% of our work is in the area of environmental law, about a quarter of which is in the area of environmental compliance counseling.

At the same time, about 70% of our work is litigation in some form or another, a substantial portion of which involves environmental issues, such as cost recovery and toxic torts. Our other litigation work ranges from class actions, to injunctions, to product liability claims, to construction defect claims to personal injury cases.

Around 40% of our work is insurance coverage litigation on behalf of policyholders, most of which concerns environmental cleanups. The rest involves other types of claims, for instance asbestos, silicosis, construction defects and products liability coverage.

Approximately 20% of our work is business services, about half of which concerns matters where environmental concerns are at the forefront.

Key Published Decisions

Nat’l Union Fire Ins. Co. of Pittsburgh, Pa. v. Standard Fusee Corp., 917 N.E.2d 170 (Ind. Ct. App. 2009) (choice of law, “absolute” pollution exclusion, and participation in “voluntary remediation program” as a “suit”).

Cooper Indus., LLC v. City of South Bend, Ind., 899 N.E.2d 1274 (Ind. 2009) (statute of limitations under Indiana Environmental Legal Action Statute and environmental liability for corporate successors)

City of South Bend v. Century Indem. Co., 821 N.E.2d 5 (Ind. Ct. App. 2005) (declaratory action against insurers of polluter not a "direct action")

PSI Energy, Inc. v. Home Ins. Co., 801 N.E. 2d 705 (Ind. Ct. App. 2004) (ability to pursue future cleanup claims against excess insurers, late notice, lost policies, subjective "expected and intended" to cause pollution standard, "injury-in-fact" trigger)

Allstate Ins. Co. v. Dana Corp., 759 N.E.2d 1049 (Ind. 2001) ("all sums" allocation of environmental damage spanning multiple policy periods, inapplicability of owned property exclusion to cleanup claims, "injury-in-fact" trigger)

Shell Oil Co. v. Meyer, 684 N.E.2d 504 (Ind. Ct. App. 1997), trans. granted, Shell Oil Co. v. Meyer, 705 N.E.2d 962 (Ind. 1998) (liability of owners and operators under Indiana Underground Storage Tank Act)

Hartford Accident & Indem. Co. v. Dana Corp., 690 N.E.2d 285 (Ind. Ct. App. 1997) (environmental regulators’ demands as "suits," cleanup costs as "damages")

Am. States Ins. Co. v. Kiger, 662 N.E.2d 945 (Ind. 1996) (inapplicability of "sudden and accidental" and "absolute" pollution exclusions)

Ind. Dep’t of Nat. Ret. v. United Refuse Co., Inc., 615 N.E.2d 100 (Ind. 1993) (standard for administrative review of agency actions)

Ind. Dep't of Envtl. Mgt. v. Chem. Waste Mgt. of Ind., Inc., 604 N.E.2d 1199 (Ind. Ct. App. 1992), trans. den., 1993 (restraints on retroactive application of new environmental legal requirements)

Triple G Landfill, Inc. v. Board of Comm’rs, 724 F. Supp. 529 (S.D. 1991), 977 F.2d 287 (7th Cir. 1992) (scope of preemption of local rules by federal or state regulations)

EPA v. Envt’l Waste Control, Inc., 710 F. Supp. 1172, 1186 (N.D. Ind. 1989), aff’d, 917 F.2d 327 (7th Cir. 1990), cert. denied, 499 U.S. 975 (1991) (RCRA claims against landfill)

Legislative Summaries

2009 Publication		Co-Author, Indiana Perspective. A summary of environmental legislation for 2009. For more information, click here.

2008 Publication		Co-Author, Indiana Perspective. A summary of environmental legislation for 2008. For more information, click here.

2007 Publication		Co-Author, Indiana Perspective. A summary of environmental legislation for 2007. For more information, click here.

2006 Publication		Author, Indiana Perspective. A summary of environmental legislation for 2006. For more information, click here.

2005 Publication		Author, Indiana Perspective. A summary of environmental legislation for 2005. For more information, click here.

2004 Publication		Author, Indiana Perspective. A summary of environmental legislation for 2004. For more information, click here.

2003 Publication		Author, Indiana Perspective. A summary of environmental legislation for 2003. For more information, click here.

2002 Publication		Author, Indiana Perspective. A summary of environmental legislation for 2002. For more information, click here.

2000 Publication		Author, Indiana Perspective. A summary of environmental legislation for 2000. For more information, click here.

1999 Publication		Author, Indiana Perspective. A summary of environmental legislation for 1999. For more information, click here.

1998 Publication		Author, Indiana Perspective. A summary of environmental legislation for 1998. For more information, click here.

1997 Publication		Author, Indiana Perspective. A summary of environmental legislation for 1997. For more information, click here.

1996 Publication		Author, Indiana Perspective. A summary of environmental legislation for 1996. For more information, click here.

1995 Publication		Author, Indiana Perspective. A summary of environmental legislation for 1995. For more information click here.

1994 Publication		Author, Indiana Perspective. A summary of environmental legislation for 1994. For more information click here.