Head of Hunton Andrews Kurth’s administrative law team, Eric is respected for his business-minded approach to environmental compliance and risk management. Eric has 30 years of experience advising clients on compliance matters, managing environmental aspects of business transactions, and litigating a wide range of environmental matters, including defense of enforcement actions, challenges to environmental permits, contractual disputes regarding environmental indemnities, challenges to administrative rulemakings and actions for recovery and allocation of costs for environmental cleanups.

Eric’s practice encompasses all major environmental regulatory programs, including the Clean Water Act (CWA), Clean Air Act (CAA), CERCLA, RCRA, NEPA, the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and other resource and wildlife protection laws.

Eric has litigated cases in numerous federal and state courts across the country and is admitted to practice before the US Courts of Appeals for the Third, Fourth, Eighth, DC and Federal Circuits and the US Supreme Court. He has argued appeals before the Third, Fourth and Eighth Circuits.

A significant portion of Eric’s practice involves advising clients on environmental risks in connection with complex business transactions and major development projects.
His work involves identifying environmental compliance requirements and environmental risks and developing creative approaches to managing these issues to ensure they do not become impediments to completing the transaction.

Eric’s extensive experience in both litigation and transactional matters gives him insight into client needs, allowing him to balance their business objectives with practical aspects of the case at hand.

Bar Admissions

Education
JD, Duke University School of Law, with honors, Editorial Board, Duke Law Journal, 1985

AB, Princeton University, cum laude, 1982

• Represents energy company in defending NEPA challenge to permit for electric transmission line connecting new wind generating facilities in Mexico with the US electric grid in California.
• Represents developers, investors and lenders on environmental matters in connection with the development and acquisition of major energy facilities (including coal, gas, wind, solar, and geothermal)
• Represents chemical manufacturing company on CERCLA and RCRA matters in connection with manufacturing facility in North Carolina.
• Represents electric utility company on various environmental compliance matters and response actions.
• Represents major waste management company in CERCLA litigation involving sites in numerous jurisdictions, including New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Puerto Rico.
• Supervised environmental due diligence and negotiated and drafted environmental agreements for numerous real estate transactions and commercial financings.
• Represented utility company joint defense group in successfully defending NEPA challenge to National Park Service permit for major electric transmission line project.
• Represented electric utility company in successfully defending NEPA and ESA challenge to CWA permits for new generating facility.
• Represented electric utility company in successfully defending NEPA challenge to Department of Energy financial assistance for new IGCC generating facility.
• Represented real estate developer in successfully defending NEPA challenge to CWA permit for a major redevelopment project at the Meadowlands Sports Complex.
• Represented energy company in successfully defending NEPA challenge to permits for electric transmission line connecting new generating facilities in Mexico with the US electric grid in California.
• Represented waste management company in defending toxic tort suit related to Superfund site in New Jersey.
• Represented mining company in CERCLA litigation regarding cleanup of mine site in Maine.
• Defended PTOW official and beverage production company in criminal prosecutions under the Clean Water Act.
• Represented major national bank in litigation involving liability for cleanup of a contaminated manufacturing facility in South Carolina.
• Negotiated numerous multilateral agreements for the transfer of air emission credits.
• Participated in numerous administrative rulemaking proceedings involving federal regulation of wetlands under the Clean Water Act.
• Participated in numerous administrative rulemaking proceedings under the Clean Air Act, as well as related federal appellate court litigation.
• Represented the Commonwealth of Virginia and the Cities of Virginia Beach and Chesapeake in connection with a BRAC order regarding the realignment of a major Navy jet base.

• 2017 Chambers USA Environment Law Firm of the Year

• How “Extraordinary” Is Injunctive Relief in Environmental Litigation? A Practitioner's Perspective, The Environmental Law Reporter
• A Decade of Superfund Litigation (with Jones and McSlarrow), Environmental Law Reporter
• Unmanned Aircraft Operations in the Energy and Mining Industries: An Overview of the Legal and Regulatory Landscape, 36 Energy & Min. L. Inst.
• Government Ethics As If People Mattered, 58 George Washington Law Review 502