The scope of this training includes practice and procedure for health and safety law, environment, anti-bribery and corruption, food and drink laws and product safety.

Legal compliance issues can have a huge impact on the fortunes of your business. Investing in skills, knowledge and competencies at all levels of an organisation is the most effective solution to preventing and mitigating the risks impacting on every business. Our lawyers can train your board, legal team and/or operational staff in relation to legal requirements, obligations and compliance; developments in environmental, safety and health practice; directors’ duties under the relevant regime(s); and the approach of the regulator and courts to any breach, including sentencing powers and relevant case law.

We have developed a range of training options to provide you with practical, commercial and tailored assistance where you need it most. The training is designed to be flexible and to meet your business needs. We propose an indicative length and content for each course, but all courses can be adapted to suit your business, your industry/sector and the knowledge and experience levels of the people who will be attending. If you are interested in more than one course, we can combine them, as required, and can adapt proposals accordingly.

Follow the link to view the full scope of our frESH Law Training offering and contact us to discuss how we can tailor our programs to meet your needs.

From vapor intrusion systems to rooftop solar; green building to pollution legal liability insurance, environmental and real estate go hand-in-hand. Environmental issues are routine in all types of real estate transactions, no matter the size, location, or nature of the property and can potentially impact the land (including subsurface), the building, or both. Many of…

Today the Supreme Court issued its order list from its February 15 Conference during which it considered whether to grant certiorari in two pending petitions regarding discharges of pollutants to groundwater that is hydrologically connected to surface water. The Court granted certiorari in County of Maui, HI v. Hawaii Wildlife Fund, et al. only as…

Often called the fourth branch of government, administrative agencies implement the labyrinth of federal regulations governing people and companies in the United States. Administrative agencies play a particularly important role in regulating environmental, health, and safety in the United States. Those administrative agencies may soon face greater scrutiny from federal courts in their interpretation of their own regulations. This development could give businesses—particularly those in highly regulated industries—more opportunities to challenge, limit, or at least better anticipate their regulatory burden.

This term in Kisor v. Wilkie, the US Supreme Court will consider whether to overturn Auer deference; the rule that courts must defer to an agency’s construction of its own regulation unless that interpretation “is plainly erroneous or inconsistent with the regulation.” This development fits with the broader trend that we identified last year—the Court’s growing skepticism about deferring to legal determinations made by administrative agencies. Last year, we explained the Court’s hostility to Auer deference’s controversial cousin, the Chevron doctrine, which requires courts to defer to an agency’s reasonable interpretation of a statute.

We are pleased to share our latest edition of “frESH Law Horizons: Key Developments in UK & EU Environment, Safety and Health Law, Procedure and Policy”. In the January 2019 edition, we summarise 27 developments in the environmental, safety and health sector. Top stories this month include:

  • Post-Brexit environmental guidance set out in the Environment Bill,

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EPA recently released the pre-publication version of its proposed National Compliance Initiatives for FY 2020-2023.  Notably, consistent with Susan Bodine’s August 21, 2018 Memorandum “Transition from National Enforcement Initiatives to National Compliance Initiatives,” EPA has extended the cycle from two years to four years, moved away from sector targeting, and updated its focus for FY 2020-2023 from enforcement to compliance initiatives.  EPA believes this adjusted focus will “better convey the overarching goal of increased compliance and the use of not only enforcement actions, but the full range of compliance assurance tools.”

On April 20, 2018, Governor Murphy signed Executive Order 23. In the order, Governor Murphy concluded that New Jersey’s low-income communities and communities of color have been exposed to disproportionately high and unacceptably dangerous levels of air, water, and soil pollution, and that the State should focus its efforts on promoting environmental justice. Accordingly, the…

Troutman Sanders partner Chuck Sensiba and Associate Morgan Gerard authored the main feature article in the January 2019 issue of The Water Report, a monthly publication focused on federal and state water issues. In the article, Sensiba and Gerard discuss how a rule proposed by the Trump Administration would significantly narrow the number of…

California Natural Resources Agency adopts final amendments to CEQA Guidelines, providing additional clarifying revisions to GHG impacts, baseline, and deferral of mitigation amendments.

By Marc Campopiano, Winston Stromberg, and Samantha Seikkula

The California Office of Administrative Law recently approved a suite of amendments to the CEQA Guidelines, which are now in effect. Latham…

The Ohio Supreme Court recently settled an open question under Ohio’s Marketable Title Act (MTA), determining that a reference to the type of interest created and to whom it was granted is all that is necessary under the MTA to preserve the interest. And interestingly, despite the existence of the Dormant Mineral Act (DMA), the Supreme Court applied the MTA to an oil and gas interest.

In Blackstone v. Moore, landowners filed a lawsuit against the owners of an oil and gas royalty interest underlying the landowners’ property, seeking to extinguish the interest under the MTA (Because the appellees (Kuhn heirs) had filed an affidavit to preserve their mineral interest within sixty days of receiving the Blackstones’ notice of intent to declare the mineral interest abandoned, there was no question that they had preserved their interests under the DMA). Created in 1915, the oil and gas royalty interest arose prior to the “root of title” (the last recorded title transaction before the preceding 40 years from when marketability is being determined) and therefore was subject to extinguishment under the MTA.