Greg Bibler is chair of the firm’s Environmental Practice. His practice includes litigation, enforcement, corporate compliance, contaminated site management, and business transactions. Core areas of Mr. Bibler’s expertise include cost recovery and environmental tort litigation, internal investigations and defense of environmental enforcement actions, environmental auditing and management systems, SEC reporting of environmental liabilities, and complex or “mega sites,” particularly those involving coal tar, contaminated sediment, vapor intrusion, or DNAPL migration and remediation.
WORK FOR CLIENTS
Day-to-day, Mr. Bibler works with clients to develop and implement creative strategies for addressing and resolving environmental risks. He appears in courts and before agencies in cost-recovery and damages suits, licensing proceedings and enforcement actions.
Mr. Bibler provides counsel and assists in instituting corporate programs for compliance with environmental and nuclear regulations and management standards. He represents clients at sites throughout the country in devising and implementing cost-effective plans for clean-up and redevelopment. Mr. Bibler also evaluates and negotiates terms for allocating environmental risks in corporate and real estate transactions.
Recent work with clients in these areas includes:
- Management of vapor intrusion and indoor air quality investigations and response actions at multiple major federal and state sites
- Internal investigations and defense of administrative, civil and criminal enforcement actions arising under state and federal environmental laws regulating hazardous and solid waste, wastewater permitting and discharges, discharges to surface waters, air emissions, nuclear materials, and release reporting
- Successful defense and settlement of federal citizen suit for alleged violations of wastewater discharge requirements
- Representation of lead PRP with respect to allocation, remediation, and natural resource damages issues at the Ashtabula River Site, the largest contaminated sediment project to be funded under the Great Lakes Legacy Act
- Cost allocation litigation and negotiation of consent decrees to resolve federal and state claims for clean-up costs
- Defense of personal injury and property damage claims relating to groundwater, indoor air and soil contamination in multiple jurisdictions.
MEDIA
Mr. Bibler has chaired and spoken at multiple bar association and other programs on such topics as vapor intrusion, SEC disclosure of environmental liabilities, contaminated sediment management, and environmental diligence and allocation of risks in business transactions. Among his many publications, the most recent include: “Structuring the Transaction to Allocate Environmental Liability,” in Environmental Aspects of Real Estate and Commercial Transactions (2011, with Gerard Caron); “New ASTM Standard Provides Limited Tool for Assessing Vapor Intrusion Risks” in Daily Environment Report (September 2008, with Laurence S. Kirsch and Christophe G. Courchesne); “New Rules Require Accounting for Future Environmental Costs” in The Metropolitan Corporate Counsel (April 2007, with Nathan Brodeur); “Ashtabula River Restoration Project Establishes New Federal Funding Precedent” in Daily Environment Report (November 2006, with Wayne Reiber); “Scrutiny of Indoor Air Pathway Affects Standards for Investigation and Cleanup” in Environment Reporter (November 2005, with Elizabeth Mason); and “Contaminated Sediments: Are There Alternatives to Superfund?” in Natural Resources & Environment (Fall 2003).
BAR AND COURT ADMISSIONS
Mr. Bibler has been admitted to the bar in Massachusetts and New York, the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. He has appeared pro hac vice in numerous other jurisdictions.
RECOGNITION
Mr. Bibler has been selected for inclusion in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business and The Best Lawyers in America.
Mr. Bibler was among the “junior twelve” elected to Phi Beta Kappa in his junior year at Harvard College. He also was the recipient of the John Knox Fellowship for study at Cambridge University. In addition, Mr. Bibler was awarded first place in the American Association of Trial Lawyers Fifteenth Annual Environmental Essay Contest.