Thompson Hine Podcasts

In this episode, Andy Kolesar hosts a discussion with retired Thompson Hine partner Mike Hardy who started practicing environmental law in the early 1970s–the time when USEPA and Ohio EPA were created and when Congress started enacting the major federal environmental laws, including NEPA, CAA and CWA, shortly followed by RCRA and CERCLA. Mike discusses his early career as the regulated community began dealing with the onslaught of new laws and regulations. He offers a first-hand account of how his utility clients struggled with stringent CAA and CWA regulations imposed upon coal-fired power plants. Mike also discusses the early days of Superfund and the complex litigation that ensued. Mike reflects on his long, successful career as an environmental lawyer and the evolution of changes impacting the practice spanning his career from the early 1970s until his retirement in 2018. Andy and Mike also take a look ahead at how developing technology, including AI, is impacting the current landscape of environmental law.

Tanya Nesbitt is a litigator and partner in Thompson Hine’s Environmental and Product Liability Litigation groups and a member of the firm’s ESG Collaborative. She routinely helps companies navigate regulatory and litigation risks associated with greenwashing and environmental justice. In this episode, Tanya is joined by Bonita Johnson, a microbiologist for EPA Region IV and member of the White House Environmental Justice Interagency Council, to discuss the evolution of environmental justice, pitfalls associated with improper EJ assessment, and best practices for company stakeholder engagement.

Tanya is a litigator and partner in Thompson Hine’s Environmental group and a member of the firm’s ESG Collaborative, a multidisciplinary and comprehensive team of attorneys who advise clients on meeting their evolving ESG goals. She helps companies navigate potential business disruption from the regulatory and litigation risks associated with the advertising and marketing of their environmental benefit claims. She is a frequent speaker and author on the recent rise of greenwashing litigation and its implications for companies’ ESG goals. In this episode, Tanya provides mitigation strategies that can help companies prepare for the upcoming regulatory requirements and proactively mitigate their risk from future greenwashing claims. Tanya is joined by Heidi Friedman, a partner in Thompson Hine’s Environmental group and the co-founder and co-chair of the ESG Collaborative, who frequently speaks on ESG issues and works closely with public and private companies to align their ESG targets with their business values.

Breaking Down ESG: What You Need To Know Now

Heidi Friedman is a partner in Thompson Hine’s Environmental group and the co-chair of the firm’s ESG Collaborative, a multidisciplinary and comprehensive team of Thompson Hine attorneys who advise clients on meeting their evolving ESG goals. She frequently speaks on ESG issues and works closely with public and private companies to align their ESG targets with the values of the business. Heidi is joined by fellow Thompson Hine Environmental group partner Joel Eagle to discuss recent ESG developments and provide some best practices and practical tips for how companies large and small can begin or continue to tackle ESG objectives and increasing regulatory requirements.

PFAS Regulatory and Remediation Update with John Simon, Principal, Gnarus Advisors LLC

John Simon, an environmental consultant with over three decades of experience in assessing and remediating hazardous substances, is heavily involved in PFAS regulatory and remediation developments. Among other things, he founded and led the PFAS Experts Symposium attended by 60 leading PFAS experts in 2019 and 2021 and is the editor-in-chief of Remediation Journal, a John Wiley & Sons publication. In this episode of Environmental L.A.W.S. Simon joins Thompson Hine Environmental group partner Andrew Kolesar to discuss recent PFAS developments, including the implications of USEPA’s proposed listing of PFAS compounds as hazardous substances, USEPA’s drinking water health advisory levels for certain PFAS compounds and the likely impact on remediation sites, PFAS due diligence considerations, and developments in remediation technologies.

Hot Topics in Antitrust

An antitrust discussion hosted by Jen Roach and Matthew David Ridings, with guest Thomas F. Zych

Welcome to Competition Café, a podcast focused on hot topics in antitrust! This podcast is designed to bring you short discussions of less than 15 minutes with antitrust practitioners on developing trends in antitrust enforcement and litigation to keep you informed.

We invite you to listen to our most recent edition of Competition Café, which explores developing trends in antitrust enforcement and litigation. Our special guest Tom Zych, Chair Elect of the ABA’s Antitrust Section, gives our listeners an overview of the main points of discussion at the ABA’s annual spring meeting, which was recently held in Washington, D.C. Join us as we explore how the world is reacting to the evolving changes in antitrust from the perspectives of the DOJ director, FTC commissioners and international enforcers.

Welcome to our very first edition of Competition Café, a podcast focused on hot topics in antitrust! This podcast is designed to bring you short discussions of less than 15 minutes with antitrust practitioners on developing trends in antitrust enforcement and litigation to keep you informed. The topic of this podcast is the changing position of the agencies on merger review.

In a July 2021 executive order, President Biden made clear that antitrust enforcement would be a top priority for his administration. To accomplish the objectives set out in the executive order, officials at the Federal Trade Commission and the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice have indicated a willingness to shake up bedrock principles of antitrust law. As a result, the merger review process has become less predictable. Thompson Hine partners Joshua Shapiro and Mark R. Butscha, Jr. discuss these changes and the impact on companies subject to the HSR merger review process.

Hot Topics Under UK Environmental Laws – An Interview With Burges Salmon Environmental Partner Michael Barlow

In this episode, Andy Kolesar of Thompson Hine is joined by Michael Barlow of Burges Salmon LLP for a discussion of hot topics under UK environmental laws. Mike is the head of Burges Salmon’s energy and utilities sector group and leads the firm’s water team. He provides his insights on post-Brexit environmental laws, including “UK REACH”; the status of the deliberations over the Environment Bill; enforcement trends; climate change and “net zero” objectives; and ESG initiatives. As Mike discusses in the podcast, it is “not business as usual” in the UK and it is important to follow closely the post-Brexit legal developments.

In this two-part episode, we examine the history of Love Canal, America’s most notorious toxic waste dump, which prompted the passage of CERCLA. In part one, Thompson Hine attorney Nathan Hunt tells the story of William Love and his ambitious plan to build a perfect city powered by free hydroelectricity in Niagara Falls, New York. Little did Love know that history would forever associate him with toxic waste instead of his ideal city. Nathan will explain who William Love was, his vision for the perfect city, why he wanted to build it in Niagara Falls, how he planned to get people and businesses to move to Niagara Falls, and why (spoiler alert!) the project ultimately failed. Part two will cover the environmental catastrophe that made Love Canal a household name in the 1970s and galvanized support for the passage of CERCLA in 1980.

PFAS 2021: Updates on “Forever Chemicals”

PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), a family of thousands of emerging contaminants, are seemingly everywhere these days, including on federal and state legislative and regulatory agendas, in the news and in Hollywood movies. In this episode, Thompson Hine partners Wray Blattner and Joel Eagle discuss recent PFAS developments and provide insight into possible or likely PFAS regulations and legislation under the Biden administration and the Michael Regan-led U.S. EPA. Wray and Joel examine topics including:

Adding certain PFAS as CERCLA “hazardous substances”

Designating drinking water maximum contaminant levels for some PFAS compounds

New PFAS reporting requirements under EPCRA

PFAS disposal and sampling methodologies

Expansive PFAS litigation

PFAS impacts on environmental justice considerations

PFAS will be front and center throughout the Biden administration and in states across the country. Join Wray and Joel as they delve into this fast-moving and fascinating topic.