future-focused

When the goal is to get a transaction done, environmental issues can, and often do, have a profound impact on the trajectory of the deal, particularly if it involves a major industrial facility. Liskow counsels clients on either side of the undertaking, providing guidance for both acquisitions and divestitures on negotiating any of the seemingly endless environmental complexities involved, all with the goal of helping make the vision of a transaction into a reality. We, in other words, help clients get deals done by handling the environmental issues.

Overview

The foundation of our capabilities in this realm is our unmatched subject-matter expertise. Our firm has earned a reputation as hands-on environmental lawyers who work daily with the real-world legal and regulatory challenges our clients contend with. When clients are assembling transactions, we bring this experience, knowledge, and judgment to bear. We know what and where the solutions are because we’ve put them into practice. Whether it’s mitigating liability, sorting out the challenges of indemnification, or handling the practicality of solving real world problems, we know what course to take. We have practiced every aspect of environmental law for over eight decades. We know what to do because we’ve done it.

We’ve seen it before

Our clients span the gamut of individuals, entities, and companies. We’re represented investors, sellers, buyers, banks, landowners, private equity funds. There’s little we haven’t seen. In transacting business, our clients will sometimes come up against totally novel (to them) situations. Usually, it’s something we’ve encountered dozens of times.

Providing understanding, providing tools

We define victory as a transaction that proceeds smoothly, and a client who’s both provided with a clear understanding of their environmental liabilities and provided with the tools they need to manage them. While we are often able to go from a “no” to a “yes,” we are equally comfortable recognizing when, and why, a deal should not happen, and telling our clients. We have no problem killing a deal that deserves it.

Seeing around transactional corners

And this includes keeping clients ready for what’s next. While the role we play in transactions remains unchanged, the general environmental enforcement climate is now stricter. Liabilities are magnified. Costs are higher. Environmental issues are more important to stakeholders, shareholders, the public. Companies want to be greener, which may mean divesting “dirtier” business units in favor of something different. We help with all of this.

Our role in counseling acquisition and divestiture clients is to enable our clients to make the best possible business decisions, with as much information and as many options as possible. That’s how deals get done. That how we maximize opportunity and minimize risk. And that’s how we help our clients do what they do best – business.

Notable Experience

  • We advised a client in the aluminum industry consisting of a coalition of customers who had bought an alumina production facility out of bankruptcy. As part of our analysis of the liabilities in the transaction, we recommended the purchase of environmental insurance to cover unknown liabilities, as well as researching a way to cap known liabilities. Without the insurance, the facility could not have been purchased, and the client would have lost a key supplier of an essential component. With the addition of the then-novel Bona Fide Prospective Purchaser defense, the new owners were put in the best possible position to manage past environmental liability.
  • We assisted a Canadian client in purchasing an ethylene facility in Louisiana. We helped ensure that environmental issues, which are often significant in transactions involving the chemical industry, were managed. The purchase included potentially contaminated property, and potential enforcement of environmental regulations, as well as permitting issues.

We are known for these strengths

  • Helping identify environmental risks
  • Assessing the risk and magnitude of environmental issues in due diligence
  • Handling environmental due diligence, assessing potential issues, and guiding clients on mitigating the environmental liability we uncover.
  • Assistance in drafting and negotiating environmental provisions in documents
  • Helping clients identify and implement risk mitigation solutions
  • Guidance in procuring and negotiating insurance coverage
  • Managing voluntary cleanup work
Liskow & Lewis has top-notch advisory counsel for environmental matters, most knowledgeable in the business.
Best Lawyers Client Comment
Environmental Law, 2020

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