Because of the strict and retroactive liability provisions of many federal and state environmental laws, purchasers and investors of businesses and real estate can incur enormous cleanup liability even where they are not responsible for the contamination. A properly developed due diligence program can yield significant cost savings to clients in terms of liabilities avoided and adjustments to a particular transaction if information from the due diligence investigation is used properly and in the early stage of the transactional process.
We have extensive experience with environmental issues associated with acquisition, construction, development refinancing and sale of commercial, retail, hotel, industrial, health care, affordable housing, residential and multi-family properties as well as distressed real estate or obsolete/surplus corporate properties.
We always look for innovative and practical solutions to environmental problems with one premise in mind: Minimizing environmental liability while maximizing the business opportunity for our clients.
Our corporate and real estate transactional services include:
- Pre-Transactional Diligence- Strategic sellers are increasingly using pre-transactional diligence reviews to help flag issues that could complicate a transaction to maximize the value of the assets and expediate the closing of the transaction. We help clients identify existing and legacy liabilities associated with corporate assets and historic operations, resolve and develop pro-active strategies for those issues to facilitate transactions.
- Environmental Reviews– we help clients develop expeditious and cost-effective investigations that meet the needs of a fast-moving transaction and their particular risk tolerances, evaluate and confirm environmental issues identified in phase 1 reports or recommendations in phase 2 reports; provide clients with practical and reasonable estimates that allow clients to better value their transactions, and review or negotiate contracts with environmental consultants;
- Structuring Strategic Solutions- We assist clients structure their transactions and design creative cost-sharing or allocating mechanisms to try to minimize their potential liability; develop exit strategies for the environmental liabilities identified during the environmental due diligence process;
- Financial Assistance Mechanisms– we have particular expertise in identifying and obtaining financial assistance for defraying some or all of the cleanup costs arising out of a particular transaction;
- Contract Drafting and Negotiation– we assist in drafting environmental provisions in a full range of agreements including due diligence requests, purchase and sale agreements, environmental covenants for loan and financing agreements, indemnities, post-closing remediation and remediation agreements, access or license agreements to perform or implement investigations or remediation;
- Post-Closing Services– We help clients implement, monitor and enforce post-closing obligations to investigate, remediate or monitor environmental issues. We also develop due care/appropriate care plans to support risk-based cleanups, comply with post-remedial obligations and maintain liability protections;
- Regulatory Compliance- we provide pre-transitional support to sellers to identify and remedy compliance issues to maximize asset value; utilize innovative and flexible regulatory policies to reduce penalties and compliance costs; and represent clients in administrative proceedings.
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