Contamination cases are unlike all other legal cases.
Environmental contamination cases involve the possible application of environmental regulations and laws as well as a sophisticated understanding of complicated legal issues including causation, preemption, and limitations in addition to factual questions about responsible parties, scientific causality, environmental harm, and sufficient evidence. While most pure environmental lawyers focus on technical environmental laws as a basis for recovery, that is not our primary strategy. Rather than follow the traditional model, we employ the full range of available legal remedies to benefit our clients. And while many of our clients have either inside or outside counsel, they are not equipped to litigate these types of cases. The Environmental Litigation Group (ELG) at Baron & Budd work hand in hand with our client’s everyday lawyers to secure proper monitoring and support.
Serving both public entities and individuals.
The courts are the only fair forum left to keep the political influence on our environment in check. Our strategy is to apply proven common-law tort theories that allow us to show a jury a company’s bad acts leading to contamination. The ELG is a unique combination of highly skilled trial lawyers whose abilities are only matched by their passion to protect the environment and seek redress for those who have been harmed. It takes skill, experience and a well-funded group of lawyers to navigate the web of political influence and take on the riches of corporate America in a court of law.
The ELG is led by Scott Summy, one of the most successful environmental lawyers in the country. Summy often says, “water is the essence of life and we are so fortunate to have the opportunity to represent and assist clients who are impacted by contaminated water.” Under Summy’s leadership, the ELG has achieved unprecedented results. They have recovered well in excess of a billion dollars for their clients.
Summy and the ELG led the fight against the entire oil industry who contaminated much of the nation’s drinking water with MTBE. They successfully took on giant Syngenta to address nationwide water contamination of atrazine. They also successfully represented thousands of clients in the BP oil spill. The ELG has represented hundreds of public entities and individuals whose drinking water was contaminated. As a result of their work, approximately 42 million Americans drink from water systems who have received compensation through the ELG’s representation. No other firm in the country has achieved these results.
