Mr. William S. Hatfield focuses his practice on environmental counseling in complex regulatory and litigation matters, strategic planning, permitting and compliance, defense of state and federal enforcement matters, environmental health and safety audits, and due diligence in acquisitions and divestitures.
He represents clients in an array of environmental matters involving the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), and the New Jersey Spill and Landfill Closure Acts.
He works with environmental consultants and technical experts on the investigation and remediation of sediment sites and contaminated properties and has extensive experience helping clients navigate through complex disputes and transactions related to allocation of responsibility for cleanup and remedial activities.
Mr. Hatfield has represented multiple parties in complicated hazardous waste site matters, and he sets strategy and leads the efforts in a number of joint defense groups. He has also represented clients in matters related to brownfields sites and redevelopment of underutilized and contaminated properties in several states.
In addition, Mr. Hatfield has extensive experience in environmental/permitting due diligence investigations for facilities and assists clients in determining the risks associated with acquiring assets and real property in New Jersey and New York. He has negotiated developer agreements and has assisted and advised clients in connection with environmental issues in contracts and leases related to remediation and permitting compliance issues.
As a lawyer with a master’s degree in the study of environmental law, Mr. Hatfield has considerable educational training and experience with environmental matters from both the technical and policy perspectives. He has significant litigation experience on complex environmental matters involving multiple parties and sites that have been impacted by different sources of contamination.
He has trial experience in both the state and federal courts in New Jersey and has significant experience in alternative dispute resolution and negotiation of environmental liabilities among potentially responsible parties (PRPs).
Over the last decade, Mr. Hatfield has had significant involvement in one of the most complex superfund river sediment sites in the nation, representing multiple parties in a federal administrative matter and in a state litigation in New Jersey. He has worked with several joint defense groups, as well as municipal and quasi-public entities, in negotiating one of the largest settlements in the state of New Jersey, which was approved in December 2013.
He also has worked closely with the technical consultants and experts related to the investigation and remediation of the sediment contamination, including an evaluation of the major source of contamination through forensic work and fate and transport of contaminants in the river system.
Additional Experience:
- Representation of several PRPs in CERCLA administrative process related to the Passaic River.
- Representation of a specialty chemical company in various environmental compliance activities for multiple facilities in multiple locations in North America.
- Representation of a container manufacturing company in a citizen suit, mediation, and contribution action litigations related to RCRA, CERCLA, and common law claims in New York State.
- Representation of a trucking and rigging company with respect to the investigation and remediation of former industrial and known contaminated properties in New Jersey.
- Representation of a pharmaceutical company on due diligence and brownfield redevelopment of a former industrial site in New York state.
- Representation of a manufacturing company in connection with environmental compliance, enforcement, and permit issues in New York state and in negotiations with USEPA and NYSDEC.
- Representation of quarry, mining, and asphalt companies on landfill issues, UST issues, air permitting, ISRA applicability, and compliance issues in various real estate and corporate transactions.
- Representation of various industrial clients in a multi-party toxic tort action allegedly arising from a Superfund NPL site in southern New Jersey.
EDUCATION:
- Vermont Law School (J.D., cum laude)
- Vermont Law School (M.S.L., summa cum laude)
- Brown University (B.A.)
PROFESSIONAL ADMISSIONS:
- State of New Jersey
- United States District Court for the District of New Jersey
- United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York
- United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES:
- American Bar Association Natural Resources
- Energy and Environmental Law Section
- New Jersey State Bar Association
- Environmental Law Section
- New York Bar Association
- Environmental Law Section
Cost
Rate : $$$
