Environmental Litigation

Singleton Schreiber’s environmental attorneys have over 75 years of collective experience helping public entities and individual clients affected by devastating, human-caused environmental disasters. Our team, led by partners Kevin Hannon and Paul Starita, has litigated some of the country’s largest lawsuits related to utility-caused wildfires, mudslides, and the contamination of water, air, and soil. We represent a wide
range of clients — from individual homeowners, businesses, or organizations to public entities — using our expertise to maximize the recovery of losses and seek remediation of the disaster.

Partner Kevin Hannon has a national practice specializing in environmental and toxic torts. He has successfully litigated cases involving air, groundwater, soil, and noise pollution and his accomplishments include winning record-setting jury awards, achieving precedent-setting remediation results, and prevailing in two landmark environmental cases before the Colorado Supreme Court. His cases have involved toxic exposure and property damage contamination from lead, cadmium, arsenic, asbestos, gasoline, benzene, isocyanates, solvents, and uranium, among other substances. He is experienced in both individual and class-action cases and has held leadership positions in multiple significant contamination cases. He is nationally recognized for his work related to medical-monitoring class-action lawsuits. Mr. Hannon has litigated some of the most significant environmental cases in the United States and is currently co-counsel in a climate-alteration case, seeking property and public health damages due to climate alteration caused by the fossil fuel activities of Suncor and Exxon-Mobil.

Partner Paul Starita, a former Assistant United States Attorney for over 18 years and retired Marine Colonel, brings decades of experience in environmental compliance and litigation.

Partner Britt Strottman, a former Deputy City Attorney in San Francisco, represented the City of San Bruno as lead counsel against one of the largest utilities in the county for a natural gas pipeline explosion that killed 8 people and destroyed over 40 homes. Ms. Strottman’s advocacy led to a record-setting $1.6 billion fine against PG&E, a $70 million settlement to establish a nonprofit for the San Bruno community, the indictment of PG&E on felony criminal charges, exposed claims of political corruption at the California Public Utilities Commission, and multiple state and federal investigations of PG&E and its regulator.

Partners Chris Rodriguez and Andrew Bluth have litigation and trial experience with the transportation, oil refinery and utility industries, including obtaining a $55 million jury verdict arising out of the construction of a combined-cycle power plant in Sacramento County. 

Our lawyers have won record-setting jury awards, achieved precedent-setting remediation results, and have worked at or with public agencies. They have in-depth knowledge of environmental investigations and are experienced in complex environmental litigation, including mass tort and Multi-District Litigation matters and contamination cases involving CERCLA, RCRA, the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act,
and numerous state regulations.

Types of Environmental Cases

When large corporations, utilities, and oil companies violate environmental laws, they put the health and safety of the public at risk, exposing individuals, businesses, and organizations to harmful and toxic substances due to oil spills, natural gas leaks, wildfires, chemical exposure or other disasters.

Singleton Schreiber currently represents thousands of individuals and entities in connection with environmental mass tort matters, including pending PFAS litigation, and litigation on behalf of individuals harmed by toxic water at the Camp Lejeune military base in North Carolina.

PFAS 

What are PFAS?

Perfluoroalkyl substances, known as PFAS or “forever chemicals,” include PFOA and PFOS. Although they cause a variety of health issues, including an increased risk of certain kinds of cancer, they’ve been used for more than 80 years in the United States and, despite efforts to phase them out, remain in water sources and living organisms for years. PFAS have been found in everything from food sources to household furniture polishes to animals in the wild.

People are exposed to PFAS through their drinking water, by working with machines, and even when working as first-responders. Individuals living on military installations throughout the United States have been exposed to water contaminated by PFAS, as have firefighters working with fire suppression foam. Studies have also found that people living in cities and towns with large manufacturing hubs are regularly exposed to these harmful chemicals.

What are the harmful effects of PFAS?

Studies have found that PFAS exposure can cause a variety of health issues in adults, children, and even the unborn. These include:

• • Lower infant birth weights
  • Liver and kidney effects
  • Reproductive and developmental impacts
  • Thyroid disruption
  • Immunological effects
  • Higher cholesterol levels
  • Increased risk of kidney and testicular cancer

Ongoing PFAS litigation

Litigation for water contamination and other injuries caused by PFAS through Aqueous Film-Forming Foam (AFFF) has been consolidated in a multi-district litigation (MDL) in the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina, presided over by Judge Richard M. Gergel (Case No. MDL 2873). Presently there are over 4,000 cases consolidated in the MDL. The individual plaintiffs and entities are seeking damages for harm suffered and clean-up costs. More than 40 Defendants have been sued in connection with the AFFF litigation to ensure they will be held accountable for the harm they caused.

Because we take environmental litigation cases on a contingency-fee basis, we do not get paid unless our clients are paid. We advance the costs of working with top experts to determine damages and help our clients maximize their recovery.

For more details about how Singleton Schreiber can help you or your organization recover from the harms of a human-caused disaster or toxic exposure, contact our environmental litigation team today for an evaluation of your case.

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