環境上の不正行為と公的不法妨害訴訟

For more than four decades, our lawyers have represented companies in highly sophisticated toxic tort, climate change, chemical exposure, and product liability matters. We have extensive experience defending mass environmental and toxic tort cases, including class actions and consolidated proceedings in dozens of states, as well as successfully taking cases to trial and navigating the appellate process.

Our lawyers have been at the forefront in developing case shortening and case management techniques, including expert challenges under Daubert, Frye, and Rule 702. Clients appreciate our ability to solve seemingly intractable problems through novel approaches utilizing Lone Pine orders, mandatory classes, and innovative settlement structures, including the use of third-party settlement insurers. In addition, we help clients manage emergency situations where rapid response, strategic insight, and litigation know-how are critical. We understand how to defend cases involving hundreds (or thousands) of claimants to help streamline litigation, manage cost-effective teams, and provide resolution and end-game strategies. We counteract plaintiffs’ lobbying and media savvy techniques, as well as work with jury consultants to understand the impact of the allegations and the related publicity on the jury pool.

We understand the science of the full spectrum of major chemicals and substances, having handled cases involving ethylene oxide (EtO), greenhouse gases, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), mercury, benzene, asbestos, dioxins, trichloroethylene (TCE), formaldehyde, solvents, diesel exhaust, and per- and polyfluorinated substances (PFAS) and other emerging contaminants, as well as many other chemicals often involved in nuisance and other toxic tort litigation. Our lawyers also have developed an array of other scientific and technical best practices that are often required for tort cases, ranging from fate and transport modeling to toxicology and damages economics. We have relationships with world-renowned experts in epidemiology, toxicology, fate and transport, hydrogeology, cancer biology, biostatistics, and all fields of medicine, including oncology. Our lawyers have presented complex scientific information to courts and juries and have cross-examined and challenged the admission of adverse scientific expert opinions in federal and state courts across the country.

Increasingly, toxic tort litigation involves not only civil litigation, but also parallel or collateral interaction with state and federal regulatory agencies and criminal authorities. The benefit of Sidley’s breadth of experience means that our litigators routinely partner with our regulatory lawyers to provide a holistic approach, ensuring that our litigation and regulatory strategy complement each other.

We have participated on behalf of our clients at hearings and negotiations in front of numerous agencies and regulatory bodies, including:

U.S. Department of Justice Consumer Product Safety Commission U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (and state environmental agencies) U.S. Department of Interior U.S. Department of Energy U.S. Food and Drug Administration U.S. Department of Agriculture

U.S. Department of Labor (including MSHA/OSHA) Federal Trade Commission National Highway Transportation Safety Administration Federal Aviation Administration National Transportation Safety Board Chemical Safety Board Federal Railroad Administration State Attorneys General

Strong leadership on behalf of our clients in environmental and public nuisance litigation has earned the firm acknowledgment from many industry publications. This includes the U.S. News – Best Lawyers® “Best Law Firms” Survey, in which we received first-tier national rankings in the categories of “Mass Tort Litigation/Class Actions – Defendants,” “Litigation – Environmental,” and “Environmental Law” for 2023, and in which Sidley was named “Law Firm of the Year” in the “Environmental Law” category for 2023. Sidley also received high national rankings in the categories of “Environment” and “Product Liability & Mass Torts: The Elite” in Chambers USA 2023, with the publication citing our “proven ability in a range of…toxic tort cases, including matters with a cross-border element.”