New York-based law firm Chadbourne & Parke LLP has formed a climate-change practice to help clients with the legal and economic impacts of global warming. The team will be spearheaded by former New York Gov. George E. Pataki and former commissioner of the New York Department of Environmental Conservation John P. Cahill. Pataki and Cahill joined Chadbourne in 2007.
According to Chadbourne, the practice will work for clients grappling with the ramifications of global warming as they seek to develop new business opportunities, energy sources and technologies, and to take creative approaches to climate change.
Pataki and Cahill worked on numerous climate-change initiatives, including the adoption of the regional greenhouse gas initiative, implementation of the nation's first green-building tax credit and programs to enhance the production and use of alternative energy like biodiesel, ethanol, fuel cells and clean coal.
‘We have assembled a practice team that spans seven disciplines and encompasses more than 60 attorneys,’ says Charles K. O'Neill, Chadbourne managing partner. ‘With the debate about global warming now over, what do we do about it and when, are the critical questions we are now helping clients address.’
Pataki is currently co-chairing the independent task force on global climate change, a project of the Council on Foreign Relations, and is focusing on climate-change issues as a member of the U.S. mission to the United Nations' general assembly.
The multi-disciplinary climate-change practice draws on the experience of Chadbourne's transactional, insurance, regulatory, energy, environmental, litigation and public-policy attorneys, and includes expertise in market-based carbon cap- and- trade programs.
