Air Quality

Brian has experience across the breadth of federal and state air programs in varied contexts, including permitting, day-to-day and strategic compliance counseling, facility purchase/sale, private-party claims, and civil and criminal enforcement. Specific areas of experience include: major and minor New Source Review pre-construction permitting; Title V operating permits; federal and state hazardous air pollutant programs; federal emission standards for nonroad engines; Risk Management Programs under the Clean Air Act §112(r); Reasonably Available Control Technology (RACT) requirements for facilities and consumer products; New Source Performance Standards (NSPS); and management of refrigerants and other Ozone-Depleting Substances. His air experience also includes less conventional issues such as odor, noise, and open burning.

As an active member of the State Implementation Plan Revision Advisory Committee (SIPRAC), Brian has worked with the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) to develop, implement, and amend numerous air programs in that state. From 2009 to 2015, and from 2022 to the present, he has served as Co-Chair of the Air Task Force of the Connecticut Business & Industry Association's Energy and Environment Council.  Since 2017, he has also served on the Board of Directors of the Air & Waste Association’s New England Section.

Climate Change

Brian has long worked with clients in navigating the emerging and uncertain world of climate change. His experience includes assessing the impact of state, federal, and international climate change policy and programs, developing related strategy, advocacy, and compliance programs. through pre-existing programs as well as development of new approaches among industry, non-governmental organizations, and regulators.

Environmental Remediation

Brian has extensive experience in representing clients facing Superfund and other liability claims, including complex contaminated sediment sites in urbanized tidal estuaries and rivers. He also has long counseled a client on an extensive RCRA, TSCA and state remediation effort, natural resources restoration and site redevelopment at a large riverfront property following a century of intensive manufacturing use. He has particular experience with releases at petroleum bulk storage facilities and dispensing sites, including emergency response, investigation and remediation efforts, regulatory enforcement actions, and negotiation and lawsuits with adjacent property owners and operators, both commercial and residential.

Waste Management/Recycling

Brian has worked with numerous composting and other organics waste management facilities in achieving permitting, compliance and transaction objectives. He also has served as outside counsel to the U.S. Composting Council (USCC), where he was instrumental in developing the certification programs underlying the “compostable” logo found on many consumer plastic products today, and the “Seal of Testing Assurance” (STA) logo for compost products. In 2021-22, he played a lead role in the USCC’s task force in developing a model zoning ordinance for composting facilities.

Brian is a regular contributor to the firm’s Environmental Law+ blog, and frequently publishes and presents in a variety of venues on environmental law topics.  Since 2010, he has been a guest lecturer regarding the federal Clean Air Act in undergraduate and graduate environmental law and policy courses at Wesleyan University and Tufts University.

Before joining the firm, he clerked for Judge Albert J. Engel, Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.