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Almost every business transaction carries the potential for liability under environmental laws. Managing Environmental Liability: Business Transactions and Brownfield Redevelopment, Second Edition, is appropriate for use by corporate counsel, real estate lawyers, bank lawyers, and insurance professionals who need a general understanding of environmental laws and their impact.
Part I describes sources of potential liability and presents the goals and requirements of the major state and federal environmental statutes. Lawrence Schnapf, an environmental lawyer, and professor of environmental law, with over 40 years of national environmental transactional experience, walks the generalist through the hazardous terrain of the federal Clean Air Act, which is notoriously incomprehensible, and describes the types of permits required and the different levels of government authority. He demystifies the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and covers oil spills and permits for materials used in wetlands construction. He also explains the Comprehensive Environmental Response, the Clean Water Act, the Compensation and Liability Act, and state environmental statutes.
A particularly useful "Activity Summary” sets forth the applicable statutes and directs the reader to chapters discussing relevant issues for a particular activity (for example, acquiring corporate stocks or assets).
Part II focuses on the application of environmental laws to specific transactions and presents material on environmental hot spots, such as negotiating superfund cleanups, liability for real estate and corporate transactions, lender liability based on environmental claims, environmental audits, and insurance coverage for cleanup costs. Part II also summarizes recent cases and offers tips for reducing risk.
Fully reviewed and updated with current case law, the second edition is packed with helpful practice notes and features extensive revisions to several chapters, among these, Chapter 5, The Compensation and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA), Chapter 10, Environmental Liability for Real Estate and Corporate Transactions, Chapter 11, Strategies for Minimizing Lender Liability under Federal and State Environmental Law, and Chapter 13, Environmental Due Diligence and Environmental Audits.
The online appendices provide more than 20 forms for the practitioner and includes a trove of over 150 sample documents such as: EPA requests for information, notices of potential liability, administrative orders, de minimis settlement agreements, and much more.
Lawrence P. Schnapf is an environmental attorney based in New York City and New Jersey with over 40 years of national environmental transactional experience. He is the principal of Schnapf LLC. With his legal background and geology training, he is uniquely qualified to handle the legal and technical issues commonly encountered with environmental issues.
Mr. Schnapf primarily concentrates on environmental risks associated with corporate, real estate and brownfield transactions; commercial financing including asset-based lending, syndicated loans, mezzanine loans and distressed debt; bankruptcy, workouts and corporate restructuring. Mr. Schnapf has extensive experience with brownfield redevelopment and financing, including representing affordable housing developers and assisting local development corporations or not-for-profit organizations with their brownfield planning programs. He represents clients in federal and state environmental litigation, enforcement actions, administrative proceedings and private cost recovery actions. He has also served as liaison counsel for PRP steering committees.
Mr. Schnapf has written extensively on environmental law and is the general editor/contributing author of “Environmental Issues in Business Transactions” published by the Business Law Section of the ABA.
He has served as past Chair of various associations, committees, and task groups, among these:
the Environmental Law Section of the New York State Bar Association (NYSBA);
the NYSBA Brownfield Task Force (co-chair);
the ABA Section of Business Law Committee on Environmental, Energy and Natural Resources Law;
the Brownfield Committee of the Environmental Business Association of New York, (2002-2008);
the legal sub-committee for the 2013 revisions to the ASTM E1527 Phase 1 Standard, and
the legal sub-committee for the ASTM Vapor Intrusion Task Group (co-Chair).
He is also a former board member of:
and currently a member of:
the board of Bloomfield BNA Environmental Due Diligence Guide;
the Society of Environmental Journalists; and
the advisory board of the New York State Baseball Hall of Fame.
Mr. Schnapf is an adjunct professor of environmental law at New York Law School and is a faculty member of the NYLS Center for Real Estate Studies where he teaches “Environmental Issues in Business Transactions,” “Environmental Law and Practice” and a mini-course on “Brownfields Redevelopment.” He is a former faculty member of the Center for Christian Studies at Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church where he taught “The Bible and the Environment.”
He is listed in:
New York Super Lawyers-Metro Edition (2010-2024);
Super Lawyers Business Edition (2011-24);
The International Who’s Who of Environmental Lawyers (2008-2024); and
Chambers USA Client Guide of America’s Leading Lawyers for Business.
He has received the AV® Preeminent Rating from Martindale-Hubbell, the highest possible Peer Review Rating.
You can visit the Schnapf LLC website at www.schnapflaw.com and follow him on the Linked-in Environmental Issues in Business Transactions group.
"Schnapf does a great job of guiding the novice through hazardous terrain."
--Bi-monthly Review of Law Books
"The text covers practically any transaction that could be affected by environmental laws and provides the reader with a comprehensive overview to resolving problems, spotting issues, and avoiding future liability under the environmental laws affecting these transactions."
--The Environmental Counselor
