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Course Details

Course Information
  • smart_display Format

    Live Online with Live Q&A

  • signal_cellular_alt Difficulty Level

    Intermediate

  • work Practice Area

    Environmental

Date & Time
  • event Date

    Wednesday, April 9, 2025

  • schedule Time

    1:00 p.m. ET./10:00 a.m. PT

  • timer Program Length

    90 minutes

Credit Information

  • This 90-minute webinar is eligible in most states for 1.5 CLE credits.

$297.00

This CLE course will discuss the latest key appellate and Supreme Court CERCLA decisions, provide insights into lessons from the courts for environmental counsel and their clients going forward, and offer best practices for handling CERCLA issues.

Faculty

McGrath Peter
Shareholder
Moore & Van Allen

A frequent lecturer and author on diverse environmental issues, Mr. McGrath brings to his wide-ranging clients extensive counseling and litigation experience with environmental issues arising in business and real estate transactions. He provides his clients cutting-edge counsel on matters pertaining to the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, CERCLA, RCRA, OSHA, and other environmental and safety regulations. Mr. McGrath also conducts pioneering environmental litigation and administrative actions, and manages environmental remediations under RCRA, CERCLA and analogous state laws. His extensive environmental litigation experience includes defense of Clean Water Act citizen suits, cases involving allegations of groundwater contamination, and defense of civil and criminal enforcement actions.

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Fellers Denise
Shareholder
Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP

Ms. Fellers focuses her practice on environmental law, with an emphasis on litigation relating to groundwater contamination, including cost recovery and mass toxic tort litigation. She has experience in litigation under a variety of state and federal environmental laws, such as the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, and litigation under the state counterparts, such as the California Hazardous Substance Account Act.

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Description

Counsel must be up to date and understand the significant developments over the past year from federal court rulings. Further, counsel must follow the decisions by the administration that have affected the likelihood of CERCLA suits.

Recent rulings also conclude that federal district courts have an independent obligation to scrutinize CERCLA settlement terms rather than giving full deference to the parties. Under this standard, courts must independently examine the terms of a consent decree by comparing "the proportion of total projected costs to be paid by the [settling parties] with the proportion of liability attributable to them."

Further, several years after the landmark Supreme Court decision in Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railway Co. v. United States, 556 U.S. 599 (2009), federal courts of appeal and district courts continue to clarify the circumstances in which a person is liable as an "arranger" under CERCLA for arranging for the disposal of hazardous substances.

While not itself a CERCLA decision, the Supreme Court's 2024 ruling in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, which put an end to Chevron deference, has already jeopardized the EPA's rule designating certain PFAS compounds as "hazardous substances" under CERCLA. The rule is currently facing a court challenge from industry trade associations.

Listen as our panel of environmental attorneys analyzes the latest and most important federal court CERCLA decisions. The panel will provide insight into what those decisions mean going forward and offer best practices for handling CERCLA issues.

Outline

  1. Supreme Court CERCLA decisions
  2. District court CERCLA decisions
  3. Federal appellate court CERCLA decisions
  4. Decisions by the administration
  5. What the decisions mean for future cases
  6. Best practices in light of recent CERCLA decisions

Benefits

The panel will review these and other key issues:

  • Under what circumstances do companies need to proactively address potential parent liability for CERCLA cleanup costs caused by a subsidiary?
  • What triggers an obligation on the part of a federal district court to delve into the terms of a CERCLA settlement agreement?
  • Do consent decrees related to a CERCLA case start the three-year statute of limitations?
  • What evidence is necessary to establish the divisibility of harm and avoid joint and several liability under CERCLA?
  • What changes, if any, by the current administration impact the likelihood of CERCLA actions proceeding?