Green Initiative Expected To Boost Legal Work

By Rene Ciria-Cruz

"Green is the new black," declares Peter Hsiao, a Los Angeles lawyer and chemical engineer who heads the Land Use and Environmental Law Group at Morrison & Foerster - one of many law firms gearing up for an expected burst of new business from California's Green Chemistry Initiative (GCI).

A year and a half in the making, the initiative provides a blueprint for reducing toxic chemicals in consumer and industrial products over the coming years. In December, the California EPA - whose Department of Toxic Substances Control shaped the initiative - released its final GCI recommendations. But before the GCI's comprehensive plan can replace the state's current piecemeal approach to regulating chemicals, new laws and regulations are required.

"It's hard to estimate the full timeline of the initiative," says Claudia Polsky, the lawyer who heads California's Office of Pollution Prevention and Technology Development. "While certain [GCI] components can be done immediately, others will take longer due to money and political issues."

A database where consumers will be able to find out exactly what's in their fruit juice, cough syrup, or child's toy, for example, isn't due online until 2011.

Meanwhile, there's no shortage of questions for lawyers to work out: Will requiring the disclosure of chemical components threaten trade secrets and other intellectual property rights? Will the GCI conflict with international regulations? And how can industry and consumer-advocacy groups alike influence regulations in their favor?

As Hsiao observes, "Lots of legal services will be needed every step of the way."

To provide these services, some firms have been bulking up on scientific expertise. For example, two years ago Arnold & Porter set up a national nanotechnology practice group. "We've been publishing articles, circulating client advisories, and speaking to trade associations about GCI's challenges," says Los Angeles partner Matthew Heartney.

Other firms, such as Beveridge & Diamond, claim an advantage from their specialty in science and chemistry. The D.C.-based firm, with an office in San Francisco, focuses almost exclusively on environmental law and has a team of nanotech-savvy lawyers, says associate Laura Metz Duncan. Keller and Heckman is likewise poised for a green boom, with 25 scientists on staff to consult with attorneys about toxicology, industrial hygiene, and chemical and electrical engineering.

With two green chemistry bills passed in 2008, expanding the state's authority to regulate tens of thousands of chemicals, these law firms are confident there will be plenty of work. Leslie T. Krasny, a Keller and Heckman partner in San Francisco, declares, "We're ready."

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