Michael L. Hardy

Practices

• Environmental
• Product Liability Litigation

Professional Experience

Mike practices in the Environmental and Product Liability practice groups. He focuses his practice on environmental counseling and enforcement defense; environmental compliance analysis and planning in business transactions; and toxic tort litigation. Mike serves as lead counsel for scientific and medical experts in environmental and product liability litigation for pharmaceutical and consumer products clients. Mike served as partner-in-charge of the Cleveland office from 2003 to 2009.

Education

• University of Michigan, J.D., 1972, cum laude
• John Carroll University, A.B., 1969, magna cum laude

• Litigation
• Defense of civil, administrative and criminal multi-media enforcement proceedings under the Clean Air, Clean Water, and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Acts.
• Participation in commercial arbitration proceedings, including the successful award of $68,000,000 for a pharmaceutical company.
• Common counsel for industrial group defendants in Superfund litigation (e.g., Dura Avenue Landfill in Toledo, Ohio).
• Defense of numerous federal and state civil and criminal enforcement actions involving all environmental media (e.g., lead counsel in remedy phase, and one of the trial counsel in the liability phase of New Source Review Litigation under the Clean Air Act in United States of America, et al., v. Ohio Edison Company, et al., C.A. No C2-99-1181 (S.D. Ohio)).
• Defense of national, statewide and regional class actions in federal and state courts (product liability and toxic tort).
  Kay Bettis, et al., v. Ruetgers-Nease Chemical Co., Inc., et al.(successful reduction in size and scope of class and eventual settlement of property damage claims arising from off-site migration of chlorinated hydrocarbon twenty-five miles downstream).
  Greg Stevens, et al., v. RMI Titanium Co., et al. (mediated settlement of 4,000 class member bodily injury and property damage case arising from industrial facility fire).
  Thomas Jones, et al., v. S.C. Johnson & Son, Inc., (203 F.R.D. 290) (N.D. Ohio 2001)(successful defeat of motion for certification of nationwide product liability class involving users of an EPA registered pesticide).
  In Re: Asbestos School Litigation,U.S. District Court, Eastern District of PA, Master File No. 83-0268 (successful settlement of national schools asbestos in buildings case).
  Central Wesleyan College v. W.R. Grace & Co., et al., U.S. District Court, District of South Carolina, Case No. 2:87-1860 (successful settlement of national college and university asbestos in buildings litigation).
  Sisters of Mary v. AAER Sprayed Insulation, Inc., et al. Circuit Court, Dane County, WI, Case No. 85-CV-5952 (successful defense of national hospital asbestos in buildings litigation).
• Jury and bench trials, including product liability and CERCLA cost recovery and contribution actions (e.g., GenCorp v. Olin, Case No 5: 93CV 2269 (N.D. Ohio)).
• Defense of citizen suits under RCRA, Clean Water Act, and Clean Air Act (involving rubber products manufacturing facility).
• Defense of toxic tort cases brought against chemical manufacturers and municipal sewage sludge applicators alleging wrongful death, personal injury and property damage claims as a result of soil and groundwater contamination(Columbiana County, Ohio and Stark County, Ohio).
• Resolution of Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and RCRA Notices of Violation for a pharmaceutical and pesticides intermediate batch chemical plant.
• Resolution of administrative proceedings alleging failure to provide timely notice of a release of toxic substances to the environment.
• Defense of waste hauling companies in cases involving personal injury and property damage claims allegedly due to off-site migration of methane gas.
• Representation of corporations and individuals in criminal investigation over alleged industrial waste disposal in navigable waterways and pre-treatment violations.
• Defense of chemical and industrial manufacturers in workplace exposure cases.
• Lead counsel in numerous administrative, licensing, adjudicatory and appellate proceedings before state and federal environmental agencies (e.g., solid waste landfill siting disputes).
• Extensive experience with air and water pollution permitting for nuclear and coal fired electric generating plants and heavy manufacturing facilities.
• Lead counsel for power plant and transmission line siting cases (e.g., Perry Nuclear Power Plant 345kV transmission lines).
• Participation in power plant air pollution fumigation, long range transport, new source review, and prevention of significant deterioration cases.
• Defense of environmental criminal cases involving excessive air pollution, illegal water discharge, and improper hazardous waste disposal claims.
• Defense of pre-treatment plant bypass claims at a metal refinishing facility.
• Defense of Clean Water Act Section 311 oil spill cleanup order in Toledo, Ohio.
• Defense of product liability cases involving consumer and building products.
• Defense of indoor air pollution, asbestos in buildings, sick building, and mold cases.
• Work with defense economic experts in consumer class action fraud cases.
• Work with depositions and cross examinations of expert economists, endocrinologists, toxicologists, pharmacologists, epidemiologists, pathologists, and statisticians in pharmaceutical, life science, product liability and toxic tort cases, including cases involving environmental exposures, ingestion of hormonal therapies, and hazardous substances in buildings and work environments.
• Work with the scientific literature regarding the causes and mechanisms of cancer.
• Representation of an air pollution device manufacturer in coal fired power plant permitting cases.
• Participation on a trial team involved with combined sewer overflows.
• Defense of chemical manufacturing company in cases involving the allocation of liability for perchlorate contamination and alleged off-site contamination of drinking water wells.
• Transactions
• Due diligence, site and regulatory compliance investigations, negotiation and strategic planning for significant corporate and real estate deals involving manufacturing, chemical, steel, and pharmaceutical facilities.
• Structuring environmental allocation and indemnity provisions in merger, acquisition and disposition agreements, real estate agreements, and project financing for metal powder product, chemical, circuit board, steel, manufacturing, foundry, pesticide, pharmaceutical, plastics, electrical generating peaker and co-generation facilities.
• Advising buyers in evaluating and minimizing risks of acquiring real estate contaminated from neighboring operations.
• Assisting purchasers in qualifying for and obtaining a covenant not to sue under Ohio Voluntary Action Program.
• Helping property owner in complying with Pennsylvania Act 2.
• Drafting and structuring environmental risk allocation provisions using insurance products.
• Counseling property owners in brownfield redevelopment projects.
• Advising property owners on wetland regulatory requirements.
• Regulatory Counseling/Permitting
• Counseling business entities regarding permitting and compliance requirements, including:
• Hazard communication, community right-to-know, solid and hazardous waste handling, and toxic release reporting for manufacturing and chemical production facilities.
• Underground storage tank closure and cleanup.
• RCRA corrective action at foundries, and at manufacturing and chemical production facilities.
• Hazardous air pollutants, including MACT, MON and LDAR requirements for pharmaceutical and pesticide industries.
• New source review, prevention of significant deterioration, non-attainment offset, and allowance trading requirements at power plants.
• Landfill permitting and compliance monitoring.
• Specific Industry Experience: aerospace, asphalt, automotive, building products, chemicals, circuit board manufacturing and laminates, construction, consumer products, electric utility (generation, transmission and distribution), engineered industrial products, foundries, landfills, life sciences, metal working, metal refinishing, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, plating, powdered metal products, rubber products, steel, tolling operations, waste management, and wire manufacturing.

• "IRIS Needs a Makeover", American College of Environmental Lawyers, March 2, 2012
• "A Tug of War: How Can the State Satisfy Its Burden of Proof?", American College of Environmental Lawyers, September 14, 2011
• "A New Twist on Potential to Emit", American College of Environmental Lawyers, February 15, 2011
• Chapter Author, Ohio Voluntary Cleanup Program, Matthew Bender Brownfields Law and Practice, with annual updates
• Chapter Author, Ohio Environmental Law, Matthew Bender Environmental Law Practice Guide, 2001
• Editor, Ohio Environmental Law (Banks-Baldwin), 1992
• Board of Advisors, The Environmental Counselor, 1989-2009
• Editor-in-Chief, Ohio Environmental Monthly (Banks-Baldwin), 1989-1994
• Chapter Author, The Art & Science of Environmental Law (Aspatore Books), 2004
• Chapter Author, Ohio Environmental Law Practice Manual

• "Is Fracking a Swear Word?", a presentation to a special committee of the Episcopal Diocese of Ohio, March 13, 2012
• "The Changing Climate of Global Warming Litigation in the United States", Webinar jointly sponsored with the Gowlings firm (Canada) and Burges Salmon (U.K.), April 3, 2008
• "Environmental Issues Arising From Hydraulic Fracturing and Oil Sand Extraction", 2011

• 2012 Cleveland Litigation - Environmental Lawyer of the Year - The Best Lawyers in America
• The American College of Environmental Lawyers
• Named as 2010 Cleveland Environmental Lawyer of the year by Best Lawyer
• Listed in Who's Who Legal USA Environment 2010
• Selected for inclusion in Super Lawyers by Ohio Super Lawyer magazine 2011-2012
• Listed in The International Who's Who of Environmental Lawyers 2010
• Listed in The International Who's Who of Business Lawyers - Environmental 2011
• Listed in The Best Lawyers in America over 20 years (Environmental)
• Listed in Who’s Who in America
• Listed in Who's Who in American Law
• Named as one of Northeast Ohio’s Leading Lawyers (Environmental), Inside Business magazine, 2001-2010
• Selected for inclusion in Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business, Natural Resources & Environment, Ohio, 2003-2011