• Collaborative teams hold proven value for our clients, providing a comprehensive point of service for the full range of climate change concerns, including transactions, litigation, and regulatory concerns
• Truly global focus with key recent assignments in Europe and the US for corporations and investors
• Unique capability relating to the management of crises brought about by or otherwise concerning climate-change issues, including product liability, SEC reporting, environmental litigation, and intellectual property disputes

Global climate change – and the steps taken by regional, national, and international governmental bodies to mitigate its extent and impact – creates major issues that threaten to impact a wide range of industries. As businesses and seek ways to respond to and profit from these developments, sound legal advice, from environmental and energy regulation to intellectual property law and tax law, can play a crucial role in helping organizations plan for the future, whether they be corporations with at-risk operations or private equity and venture capital investors seeking to sponsor green technologies.

Weil Gotshal attorneys have significant experience helping clients mitigate climate change risks and take advantage of new opportunities created by domestic and international regulatory regimes. We offer worldwide counseling utilizing the firm’s Corporate, Litigation, and Tax practices. Our collaborative teams hold proven value for our clients, providing a comprehensive point of service for the full range of climate change concerns

Carbon Finance. Climate change regulations, such as the Kyoto Protocol and the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, have created active markets for tradable greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions allowances. Weil Gotshal attorneys have advised a number of clients in connection with GHG trading activities, including financing and purchasing emissions reductions from project developers; certifying the emissions reductions under the Kyoto Protocol, the Voluntary Carbon Standard and the Gold Standard; and selling the certified offsets through privately negotiated transactions in voluntary and compliance-based markets.

Corporate Transactions. Weil’s transaction lawyers are active in the US and Europe in transactions involving energy and alternative energy businesses. We understand the complexities of the business and regulatory issues presented in such transactions and are able to analyze issues thoroughly and efficiently. Our clients include investors and strategic buyers seeking to expand or refocus their market share as well as private equity and venture capital firms.

Project Development. Weil Gotshal environmental attorneys have a diversity of international experience in all aspects of project development, including participation in the creation of the largest onshore wind farm in Europe. We assist clients with the preparation of environmental impact statements under the National Environment Policy Act and analogous foreign and state law assessment requirements; advise on legal and policy issues in adapting former industrial sites to new commercial uses; help in obtaining permits necessary to operate new, expanded or redeveloped industrial or commercial facilities; counsel on wetlands or endangered species issues that threaten to stop or delay projects; and advise clients on how to respond to local opposition to proposed projects.

Environmental Compliance. Weil Gotshal counsels clients on compliance issues arising under various federal and state environmental, health, and safety programs, including those under the Clean Air Act, RCRA, TSCA, the Clean Water Act, and OSHA. Clients often call upon our environmental attorneys to help them better understand how existing and contemplated compliance regimes apply to new or redesigned business activities and products, such as those created with emerging nanotechnologies.

Technology Counseling. Technological advancement will be one key to coping with climate change and the legal mechanisms created to mitigate its effects. More efficient solar cells and storage batteries, "cleaner" coal-burning facilities, more efficient wind turbines, and technologies not yet conceived will all be the focus of significant investment. Weil Gotshal has dozens of technically trained and knowledgeable attorneys who are also skilled in intellectual property assessments, transactions, and litigation.

Litigation. One of the leading litigation law firms in the world, Weil Gotshal pairs its broad-based litigation skills with a deep conversance with environmental business concerns to form a core competency within Weil’s Climate Change Practice. Our litigators are capable of handling virtually any dispute in connection with climate change or environmental issues, including land use disputes, product liability lawsuits, agency enforcement actions, intellectual property litigation, and litigation arising from corporate transactions.

SEC Compliance. Weil Gotshal attorneys have extensive experience counseling corporate clients on how to disclose potential risks and liabilities in connection with securities’ offerings and with periodic reporting to the SEC, representing both issuers and underwriters. In the wake of recent shifts towards fair-value accounting and the call for greater transparency with regard to climate change, we are monitoring the potential implications of mark-to-market accounting and climate-control legislation on environmental disclosure obligations.

Legislative and Agency Policy Making. Weil Gotshal attorneys monitor legislative, regulatory, and policy developments on an international basis to ensure that our clients have every opportunity to influence the processes impacting their businesses. We assist clients in advocating for changes to current and proposed environmental laws both in the United States and abroad. We are skilled at drafting proposed statutory language and supporting documents and often meet with legislators and their staffs to advocate positions on behalf of our clients. We also represent clients before the Environmental Protection Agency and other federal agencies and have drafted proposed language for Agency rules, prepared comments on proposed rules, and litigated rule challenges through the administrative process and in the courts.