Education
- Smith College
- University of Virginia, School of Law
Biography
- Catherine specializes in California and federal environmental law, representing a broad range of clients and industries, including manufacturing facilities, national transportation companies, food companies, a recycling facility, and leaders in the commercial real estate and multi-family housing industry. She has represented several of her current clients for decades, including a national Real Estate Investment Trust, developers, and a marine terminal. Catherine’s areas of expertise include brownfields development, soil vapor intrusion, Proposition 65, pollution legal liability insurance policies, hazardous and solid waste, landfills, Superfund sites, electronic waste, underground storage tanks, asbestos-containing materials, lead-based paint, mold, radon, methane gas, OSHA, Porter-Cologne Act, Truck & Bus Regulation, CERCLA, RCRA, Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, and all aspects of the investigation, cleanup, and closure of contaminated properties. Catherine has special expertise in vapor intrusion and contaminated sites, major development projects (including associated agreements such as CLRRA Agreements and PPAs), and environmental due diligence. Catherine has handled enforcement actions brought by federal, state, and local agencies under a variety of laws, including one of the first U.S. EPA enforcement actions brought under the California Truck & Bus Regulation. Catherine’s transactional and compliance practice at EGC is backed by years of litigation experience, where she served either as lead counsel or co-counsel in several major cases, including citizens’ suits claims (Prop 65, stormwater), CERCLA cost recovery claims, and claims for property damage associated with subsurface contamination and soil vapor intrusion. Catherine was lead attorney for the landmark case, U.S. v. Chapman, 146 F.3d 1166, 1169 (9th Cir. 1998) (the first case to limit EPA’s ability to recover its litigation fees in a CERCLA cost-recovery action)and she was lead co-counsel for SF Baykeeper v. Levin Enterprises, (N.D. CA, 2013) (the first decision to define limits to stormwater permit requirements for the transportation industry). Catherine is Chair of the Executive Committee of the Environmental Section of the Bar Association of San Francisco.
