Malcolm is well-versed in a wide range of complex environmental law issues. Clients appreciate his forward-looking, practical approach to solving problems. Malcolm has developed a sophisticated practice covering a wide variety of environmental laws and statutes, and is always ready to assist clients, whether it be with air quality and product/chemical safety or environmental auditing and due diligence. He has gained a broad perspective of the numerous challenges facing companies operating in California, developing particularly in-depth knowledge of California’s air quality laws, Proposition 65 and the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), as well as valuable insights on climate change and contaminated properties issues specific to California’s legal market.

He also represents clients on issues such as facility permitting and closure, emissions trading, environmental insurance and consumer product safety matters.

Malcolm’s clients appreciate his business-savvy approach to helping them secure permitting to build or modify facilities, navigate rulemaking processes, understand and comply with complex regulatory programs, conduct emissions trades (including carbon), challenge agency enforcement actions and defend against citizen suits. His advice to clients helps them resolve disputes, understand environmental laws and plan confidently for the future.

His clients include large and small companies in the energy, oil, industrial minerals, manufacturing, aerospace, real estate, automotive, hospitality, and financial sectors and trade associations.

Malcolm began his career at the US Environmental Protection Agency’s headquarters in Washington, DC. He left EPA to co-found AER*X, the nation’s first emissions trading consulting and brokerage firm assisting clients to monetize environmental credits. Subsequently, Malcolm opened AER*X/RMT’s (an environmental and engineering consulting firm) first California office to more effectively and efficiently service client needs.

Bar Admissions

Education
JD, Lewis and Clark, Northwestern School of Law, Honors Certificate, Environmental and Natural Resources Law, 1982

BA, Environmental Studies and Political Science, University of California, Santa Barbara, 1979

• Regulatory Agencies: Malcolm represents a broad array of clients before local, regional, state and federal agencies in permitting projects/facilities, defending enforcement actions, compliance matters, seeking variances and at rulemaking hearings.
• Regulatory Challenges: Malcolm has taken the lead role in strategizing approaches substantively impacting rulemaking outcomes and, when needed, challenging regulations adopted by local and state agencies in court. Challenges have been based on substantive and procedural deficiencies in the adoption process and in some cases as the regulation is applied in particular circumstances.
• California's Proposition 65: Innovatively represents trade associations and their members, industrial facilities, large and small manufacturers, distributors and retailers relating to copious claims brought by the California Attorney General local prosecutors, and private plaintiffs to defend against alleged consumer products, occupational and environmental exposures. Malcolm counsels clients on risk management, testing and systems to comply with Proposition 65.
• Energy and Alternative Energy: Lead and supporting counsel on various energy projects involving siting, licensing, certification (California Energy Commission) and compliance. Projects include natural gas, bio-mass, pump water storage, landfill gas, coal, wind and geothermal. 
• Product Safety: Frequently advise clients on CPSC requirements including CPSIA, Federal Hazardous Substances Act and Flammable Fabrics Act and pesticides, pesticide products, and antimicrobial claims. Assists clients with product labeling. 
• Emissions Trading: Actively engaged in emissions trading issues, including generating, certifying and preserving emission reduction credits (ERCs), negotiating and documenting transactions, including carbon credits. 
• Handled all aspects of a multi-agency (local, regional, state and federal) investigation pertaining to a large waterfowl and fish die-off resulting in no enforcement action against client. 
• Joint and individual representation of multiple construction and industrial materials industry clients to defend local air agency enforcement allegations. Matters concluded with minor penalties, but also a requirement that the agency beneficially amend specified regulations. 
• Simultaneously managed five environmental/engineering consulting firms conducting extensive environmental; assessments of approximately 250 properties in multiple countries. Necessary to close a $1,100,000,000 transaction. 
• Consumer Advocacy Group, Inc. v. Kintetsu Enterprises of America (Cal. App. 4th Circuit) (2006). 
• Consumer Def. Group v. Rental Housing. Indus. Members (Cal. App. 4th Circuit) (2006). 
• PSC Geothermal Services Co. v. Superior Court, 31 Cal.Rptr.2d 213 (1994) (concerning District Attorney's search and seizure of environmental consultant files). 
• The Steel Co. v. Citizen For A Better Environment, Amicus Curiae Brief, 523 U.S. 83, (1998).

• Founding Member, Environmental Auditing Roundtable
• Member and Past Vice-Chair, Section on Environment, Energy and Resources, American Bar Association, 1997-1998
• Chair, Environmental Law Section, 1998-1999; Chair, Air Quality Sub-Section, 1994-1995, Los Angeles County Bar Association
• Board Member, Prop. 65 Clearinghouse Advisory Board

• 2017 Chambers USA Environment Law Firm of the Year
• Selected as a Super Lawyer for Environmental Law, California Lawyer magazine, 2013-2018. A description of the selection methodology can be found on Super Lawyers’ webpage.
• AV® Preeminent™ Peer Review Rated, Martindale-Hubbell. A description of the selection methodology can be found on Martindale-Hubbell’s webpage.

• Impact of CA Prop. 65 on Manufacturers and How They Can Use the New "Safe Harbor" Warning Provisions That Became Operative

  By Malcolm Weiss |September 2018

• Retail Industry on High Alert After $289 Million Glyphosate Verdict Against Monsanto

  By Malcolm Weiss |September 2018

• State's Greenhouse Gas Reduction Plan Dealt Setback, Daily Journal
• Facility Closures and Sales: Legal Requirements and Profit Opportunities, published for the International Congress on Hazardous Materials Management
• California’s cap and trade regulations: Will they survive long enough to make history?, Daily Journal
• Roundup Warning Label Ruling Less Surprising Than It Seems, Law360
• Coping with the South Coast Air Quality Management District's New `New Source Review' Rule, published in proceedings of the Air & Waste Management Association's 84th Annual Meeting, Vancouver, British Columbia
• Hodgepodge of Local Climate Laws Challenges Cos., Law 360
• Impact of CA Prop. 65 on Manufacturers and How They Can Use the New “Safe Harbor” Warning Provisions That Became Operative on August 30, 2018, Industry Today
• Issues of Confidentiality and Disclosure in Environmental Auditing, prepared while on staff at US EPA, Office of Planning, Policy & Evaluation, Regulatory Reform Staff
• Emissions Trading Guidance Document For Trading In Oregon, Document for Oregon Economic Development Department and Department of Environmental Quality
• Emission Reduction Credits: Who Pays Just Compensation? A Takings Analyses, Student Paper, Northwestern School of Law of Lewis and Clark College
• Chapter 4 Section 13: REACH's Impact in the Rest of the World, The European Union REACH Regulation for Chemicals: Law and Practice, Oxford University Press
• Proposition 65: New Developments, New Problems, Law360
• California Coffee Could Be Exempt from Cancer Warnings, Food Quality & Safety
• California's cap and trade regulations: Maybe there's a future in cow flatulence after all, Daily Journal
• PFAS: New Targets for Proposition 65 Litigation, The Recorder
• California Issues Enforcement Warning for PFAS in Cookware and Food Packaging Laws, Food Safety Magazine
• Prop 65 Amendments Affecting Retail, 2016 Retail Industry Year in Review, Hunton & Williams
• 2023 Retail Industry Year in Review
• 3 Takeaways Squeezed Out of Juicer’s Insurance Battle, Law360
• How To Avoid Getting Squeezed Out Of Coverage, Law360
• Do the Products You Sell Contain PFAS? A Question Every Retailer Must Be Prepared to Answer, Retail Industry 2022 Year in Review