Amy L. Edwards

Amy L. Edwards is the co-chair of the firm's National Environmental Team. She is a partner in the firm's Public Policy & Regulation Group, which has been ranked among the top law and lobbying firms in Washington, D.C., by numerous publications. Ms. Edwards has been recognized as a leading environmental lawyer for several years by Chambers USA, Super Lawyers and Best Lawyers. After holding several other leadership positions, she was sworn in as Chair of the American Bar Association's Section of Environment, Energy and Resources (SEER), the pre-eminent national organization representing lawyers in these fields, in 2018-2019. She was also inducted as a Fellow into the American College of Environmental Lawyers in 2019.

Ms. Edwards has been practicing environmental and energy law for more than 35 years. She routinely counsels developers, lenders and corporations about effective strategies for structuring real estate and corporate transactions to minimize environmental and financial risk. Ms. Edwards has developed leading industry guidance (ASTM E 2091) and publications (ABA Book on Activity and Use Limitations) on institutional controls and was an observer/advisor to the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL ) while it developed a model Uniform Environmental Covenants Act.

Ms. Edwards has represented real estate developers, corporations and financial institutions on environmental issues associated with real estate, including environmental site assessments, environmental insurance, energy benchmarking, carbon offsets, guaranteed fixed price remediation options, environmental indemnification agreements, cleanup requirements (including the use of engineering and institutional controls), renewable energy power purchase agreements (PPAs), vapor intrusion and cost recovery issues. She has provided extensive risk management advice on protective risk-based cleanups at brownfields sites being reused for commercial or residential purposes. Typical engagements have included the following:

• representing a county in Georgia in negotiations with corporate owners to acquire more than 12,000 acres of contaminated industrial land for purposes of constructing a commercial Spaceport facility, as well as advising on the environmental impact statement process under the federal National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), conservation easements, the Georgia brownfields program and on obtaining environmental insurance
• representing the developer of a former industrial site in Odenton, Md., over the past decade as this former industrial site is being converted into a mixed-use development utilizing the Maryland brownfields program and brownfields tax incentives, as well as resolving Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) issues
• advising the developer of a 7-acre brownfields site in Washington, D.C., on all environmental issues (state regulatory cleanup approvals, environmental insurance policies, indemnification agreements, lender concerns) in order to transform this contaminated site into a 1.6-million-square-foot, mixed-use development incorporating green building principles
• developing an institutional controls strategy for a former synthetic rubber manufacturing site in southern California where the land is now owned by multiple property owners
• negotiating a first of its kind Environmental Services Cooperative Agreement (ESCA) between the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) and a private party to clean up unexpected PCB contamination on a historic site undergoing redevelopment
• negotiating a PPA in connection with the installation of a 60 kW rooftop solar facility and the sale of "white tags" from a combined heat and power (CHP) facility on behalf of a college in New England
• advising numerous pipeline, natural gas producer and utility clients on environmental due diligence and regulatory compliance issues
• negotiating remediation strategies on behalf of property owners and tenants for the cleanup of contamination from dry cleaners, including addressing vapor intrusion concerns
• advising local governments and private developers on early transfer and/or land use restriction issues at several former BRAC sites, including McClellan Air Force Base (AFB), Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and Norton AFB

Ms. Edwards was the lead counsel for a real estate developer in litigation against the U.S. Department of the Army concerning damages resulting from burial of chemical and high-explosive munitions on privately owned land in Washington, D.C., which resulted in a multimillion-dollar settlement in favor of her client. She has participated on numerous steering committees for various Superfund sites; conducted negotiations over the appropriate cleanup of a former chromium manufacturing facility in Baltimore under the RCRA Corrective Action program; represented property owners in enforcement actions involving asbestos, underground storage tanks, PCBs and lead-based paint in residential and commercial real estate; and served as special environmental counsel to a trade association.

Ms. Edwards is a frequent author and lecturer on brownfields, sustainability and related environmental topics.