Emily M. Lamond is a member in the firm’s Environmental Department.

Experience

Clients rely on Emily for practical implications of environmental liability risks in real estate and corporate transactions, remediation projects, air, wastewater, stormwater and other environmental permitting, flood hazard, wetland and other land use permitting, manufacturing and other industrial operations, trusts and estates matters, product labeling, enforcement defense, environmental litigation, and cost recovery actions.

With a nationwide practice, Emily specializes in developing and implementing environmental risk mitigation and management strategies that enable her clients to achieve their business objectives in a timely and efficient manner. Described by her clients as “smart, thorough, [with] a great disposition,” as noted in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers, Emily is a passionate problem solver who anticipates both challenges and opportunities and translates complex legal and technical information into accessible terms that facilitate informed, responsible, and strategic decisions.

From Wall Street to Main Street, Emily’s clients include real estate development and management (industrial, commercial, mixed-use and residential), real estate investment trusts (REITs), banks, and institutional investors, as well as privately held businesses, small businesses, and individuals. Industries include self-storage, warehouses and distribution centers, logistics, cannabis, energy, plating, semiconductor manufacturing, ceramics manufacturing, mining, landfills, data centers, and infrastructure development.

Emily’s expertise includes advising clients on the challenges and opportunities presented by emerging contaminants such as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and 1,4 dioxane. She also works with emerging industries, such as cannabis cultivation facilities, on the unique and unanticipated operational, permitting, and compliance issues under environmental laws.

Emily’s clients regularly turn to her for Phase I environmental site assessments, Phase II site investigations, transaction trigger statutes such as New Jersey’s Industrial Site Recovery Act (ISRA) and Connecticut’s Transfer Act, permitting and compliance audits, remedial action permits, financial assurance, deed notices, liens, vapor intrusion and indoor air quality issues, underground storage tanks (USTs), asbestos-containing materials, lead-based paint, wetlands, flood hazard areas, air and water emissions, landfill and hazardous materials permitting, climate change and renewable energy policies, threatened and endangered species, historical and other protected resources, as well as environmental review processes under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), and the New York State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA).

Environmental Transactional Work

Emily’s transactional practice includes real estate acquisition and divestment, redevelopment projects, leasing, secured lending, mergers and acquisitions, asset and equity acquisitions and divestment, project financing, public-private partnerships, and bankruptcies. Emily designs and implements efficient due diligence strategies tailored for each deal. From a small real estate acquisition to a large corporate acquisition with multiple high risk facilities located in several different jurisdictions, she manages her team and works closely with consultants and engineers to identify the material risks and develop a mitigation strategy for remediation, permitting, compliance, health and safety, and other environmental risk. Working with the deal team and consultants, Emily builds environmental risk mitigation and management strategies that can include protective corporate structures, insurance policies, statutory defenses, indemnities, escrow agreements, and Brownfield programs.

Representative matters include:

• Secured Lending Counseling, United States. Lead environmental counsel for bank, including managing environmental review for all collateral properties, advising on compliance with the secured creditor exemption and innocent purchaser defense, managing Phase II sampling investigations, and negotiating consultant service agreements, loan documents, indemnity and guaranty agreements, and environmental insurance policies.
• Sale of Contaminated Property, Los Angeles Area. Advise municipality in sale of property with ongoing remediation and favorably resolve disputes on oversight agency under conflicting laws on future remediation obligations.
• Merger and Acquisition of Manufacturing Business, International. Manage large-scale environmental diligence review and analysis of manufacturing facilities located in Brazil, Canada, the Czech Republic, the People’s Republic of China, France, Germany, and Sweden, and assist client with post-closing permitting obligations.
• Superfund Site, Florida. Manage environmental, permitting and OSHA diligence review and compliance audits for purchaser of industrial manufacturing business operating on a Superfund Site and oversee post-closing corrective actions.

Hazardous Site Remediation

Emily counsels clients on strategic pathways for managing contaminated properties to achieve business objectives. She manages environmental site remediation projects from start to finish, which includes vetting, retaining and overseeing consultants and engineers, advising on technical reports, managing relationships with oversight agencies and third parties, advising on reporting obligations and financial assurance requirements, negotiating service, access and settlement agreements as well as insurance claims and obtaining final agency closure.

Representative matters include:

• Coal Tar, Metals, and Solvents Site, New York. Advise foreign client on its environmental indemnity obligations for a divested contaminated property subject to a New York State Department of Environmental Conservation cleanup action order and being evaluated by the U.S. EPA as a potential Superfund site.
• Mixed Use Brownfield Redevelopment Project, San Francisco. Negotiate a San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board cleanup order, municipal development approvals and related land use decisions, and environmental insurance policy on behalf of investor and developer clients.
• Radioactive Contamination Site, New Jersey. Engage and manage consultant to develop and implement response to potential emergency situation, advise on reporting, investigation, remediation and disposal obligations and worker health and safety concerns, and obtain closure from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.

Enforcement Defense and Litigation Counseling

Emily advises clients on defenses and response strategies for notices of violations and agency enforcement actions, serves as joint defense group counsel for potentially responsible parties, negotiates cost recovery, cost sharing, tolling agreements and settlement agreements and advises on environmental litigation risks.

Representative matters include:

• Joint Defense Group Counsel, California. Advise defendant in contribution action for disposal of drilling muds in landfill subject to Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board corrective action.
• Notices of Violations, Minnesota. Advise ethanol production facility on response strategies for notices of violations (NOVs) for air, wastewater, and storm water permits and a cleanup order and negotiate cost allocation with indemnitor.

General Environmental Counseling

Emily advises clients on a wide range of environmental and regulatory issues that can arise in the course of business operations and planning, especially when there are changes in law or agency policies. These issues include issues such as environmental justice, emerging contaminants, screening or remediation standards, financial assurance requirements, wetlands, flood hazard areas, protected species, historical resources, asbestos-containing materials, mold, vapor intrusion, land use requirements, air and water permitting requirements, and climate change.

Networks & Affiliations

Emily is a Board Member of the NAIOP New Jersey chapter and is proud to serve as Co-Chair of the Regulatory Affairs Committee. Prior to practicing law, Emily proudly served as a Christine Mirzayan Science & Technology Graduate Fellow at The National Academies of Sciences in Washington, DC, an Albert Schweitzer Fellow, and an Equal Justice Fellow. She was also an AmeriCorps service member with the New Jersey Community Water Watch.