Background
- Mike has practiced in almost every area of environmental law over the past 24 years
- Mike prefers to concentrate on securing permanent solutions to environmental law problems
Areas of Experience and Focus
- Clean Air Act
- Resource Conservation and Recovery Act
- Environmental Management Systems and Auditing
- Environmental Compliance Counseling and Permitting
- Enforcement actions; transportation of hazardous materials
- Environmental aspects of corporate and real estate transactions
- Complex air work and indemnity negotiation with predecessor operator at manufacturing facility in Ohio
- Negotiating Title V permits for facilities involved in coatings, batch processing, continuous processing and chemical manufacturing
- Defending facilities involved in air permit enforcement actions brought by US EPA/Ohio EPA
- Advising facilities confronting RACT/BACT/LEAR requirements
Achievements/Honors
- Nationally recognized in The Best Lawyers in America 2010
- Listed as "SuperLawyer" 2009 by Law & Politics
- Named by Chambers & Partners as a leading practitioner in Environmental Law in Ohio, 2004-2009
- Obtained a favorable opinion in a RCRA citizen suit case resulting in a limitation of such causes of action
Professional Involvement
- Served as Chair of the Environmental Law Section of the Cleveland Bar Association
- Chaired the Ohio State Bar Association Environmental Law Committee annual seminar
Publications and Presentations
- "Environmental Risk Update: What's Coming But Not Here Yet", Risk and Insurance Management Society, November 2009
- "Environmentally Friendly Development, Design and Construction and the Risks Therein", Half Moon Seminars, July 2009
- "Corporate Infrastructure Requirements: Risk, Liability and Transparency", The Conference Board, January 2009
- Co-Author (with Greg DeGulis) of "Old Fashioned Partnership—Cutting-Edge Law," Founding A Law Firm (2008 Thomson/Aspatore)
- "Sustainable Risk Management," Northeast Ohio Association of Corporate Counsel, January 2008
- "Impact of Climate Change on Environmental Management Systems", presented to the Northern Ohio Chapter of Air & Waste Management Association, October 2006
- Co-Author (with James Friedman) of The Silent Alliance (Regnery Gateway), an analysis of acid rain and electricity import issues
- "Basic Environmental Statutes in a Nutshell"
- "Things Not to Say to an Inspector"
- Co-Author: "Ohio Adopts a Model Law to Promote Voluntary Cleanup of Contaminated Property," Journal of Environmental Permitting, Spring 1995.
- "Does the Sixth Circuit Have a New Standard for Its Review of the EPAs Use of Air Quality Monitoring?" 18 Toledo Law Review 569.
