MICHAEL S. GIANNOTTO

MICHAEL S. GIANNOTTO | PARTNER

901 New York Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20001
USA
202.346.4124

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Michael Giannotto is a partner in the Litigation Department at Goodwin Procter and serves as co-chair of the firm’s Business Litigation Practice. He is also a member of the Environmental Practice. Mr. Giannotto specializes in counseling and complex litigation in several areas, including environmental law, toxic torts and insurance disputes.

WORK FOR CLIENTS

For over 30 years, Mr. Giannotto has advised and litigated on behalf of numerous corporations and trade associations involved in mining, manufacturing and defense contracting in connection with all of the major federal environmental laws and their state analogues. These include the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, Clean Water Act, Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, Toxic Substances Control Act, National Environmental Policy Act, Emergency Planning and Community Right To Know Act, and Federal Land Policy and Management Act.

Mr. Giannotto also has long litigated toxic tort and complex insurance matters on behalf of insurers and multinational mining and manufacturing companies. He has represented insurers in several mass tort bankruptcies and in numerous class- and mass-actions throughout the country alleging insurer bad faith. He has also litigated coverage disputes involving asbestos-related or environmental toxic torts and disputes with governmental entities over reimbursement of insurance costs under the National Defense Projects Rating Plan. Mr. Giannotto's toxic tort cases have involved product-created toxic torts (such as asbestos-related injuries) as well as environmental toxic torts (such as releases to the environment from manufacturing facilities). Mr. Giannotto has tried many cases to judgment, and has briefed and argued numerous cases before federal and state appellate courts.

Some of Mr. Giannotto's recent matters include:

Mining/Environmental

• Representation of a U.S. based multinational mining company in connection with enforcement proceedings initiated by EPA for alleged violations of the RCRA hazardous waste program in Nevada.  This matter involves cutting-edge issues relating to the application of the RCRA Bevill Amendment to secondary streams from air pollution control facilities associated with beneficiation activities. 
• Representation of a Fortune 50 multinational manufacturing company in connection with the investigation and remediation of a landfill site in upstate New York operated by an entity with which the client formerly did business.
• Representation of Mitsubishi Corporation and Mitsubishi Materials Corporation in connection with natural resources damages claims brought by the federal and New Mexico NRD Trustees arising out of a mining operation in New Mexico in which a Mitsubishi subsidiary was formerly a partner.  
• Representation of Antofagasta Minerals (a Chilean mining company) in connection with the purchase and sale of contaminated property in Nevada undergoing reclamation pursuant to state and federal law.
• Representation of a Mitsubishi subsidiary in a CERCLA cost recovery action arising out of the sale of industrial property in Nevada. 
• Participation, on behalf of several multinational clients and trade organizations, in EPA rulemakings and other proceedings dealing with the Definition of Solid Waste under RCRA, legitimacy criteria that should be applied to recycling of wastes under Subtitle C of RCRA, the scope of EPA jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act, and the need for increased financial assurance requirements for mining companies pursuant to Section 108(b) of CERCLA.
• Periodic audits of mining facilities throughout Nevada for compliance with all federal and state environmental laws and regulations, as well as employee training in these areas.
• Legislative work as well as counseling of several multinational mining companies with respect to management of mercury, including work on the Mercury Export Ban Act of 2008 and preparation of white papers for EPA with respect to MEBA. 

Insurance

• Representation of major Comprehensive General Liability carrier in connection with the W.R. Grace bankruptcy, involving briefing and trial of objections to the proposed Grace plan of reorganization, and resolution, through negotiations with all relevant parties, of potential coverage liability as well as liabilities arising out of over 1,000 “independent actions” brought against the carrier.
• Representation of major CGL carrier in nationwide class action alleging bad faith and violations of the Unfair Trade Practices Act in connection with its settlements of thousands of asbestos cases nationwide.
• Representation of major CGL carrier in an action brought on behalf of hundreds of individuals claiming bad faith in connection with resolution of their asbestos claims in West Virginia.
• Representation of major CGL carrier in connection with three coverage actions by insureds deriving from hundreds of personal injury and property damage claims brought against the insureds due to alleged environmental contamination in three different counties of West Virginia. 
• Representation of major aviation workers compensation insurer and government contractor in government contracts lawsuit with U.S. relating to the National Defense Projects Rating Plan.

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

Mr. Giannotto is a member of the American Bar Association’s Section on Natural Resources and the Environment.

MEDIA

Mr. Giannotto is a frequent speaker at conferences dealing with environmental issues. His publications include “EPA’s Developing Strategy for Increased Regulation and Oversight of the Hardrock Mining Industry” (43 Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Institute, Chapter 14, 1997); “The Uncertain Effects of Environmental Justice on the Mining Industry” (1999 Mining Lawyers Conference, National Mining Association, 1999); and “Environmental Justice and the Mining and Energy Industries” (21 Energy & Min. L. Inst., Chapter 4, 2001).

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Mr. Giannotto was a partner at Shea & Gardner prior to its combination with Goodwin Procter in 2004. Prior to his work at Shea & Gardner, he served as a law clerk to Justice Morris Pashman of the New Jersey Supreme Court.

BAR AND COURT ADMISSIONS

Mr. Giannotto is admitted to the bars of the District of Columbia and New Jersey, as well as to the bars of various federal courts around the country.

RECOGNITION

In 1997, the Secretary for Natural Resources of the Commonwealth of Virginia appointed Mr. Giannotto to a blue ribbon panel to investigate and evaluate the Water Quality Program of the Commonwealth's Department of Environmental Quality. The results of that report were later published (see Water Quality Program of the Department of Natural Resources of the Commonwealth of Virginia, Institute for Regulatory Science, 1997).

Mr. Giannotto has been selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America in the area of Mining Law and Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business in the area of Environmental Law. While attending law school, he served as a Senior Editor of the Harvard Law Review.