Jim leads the Faegre & Benson environmental and natural resources practice. In this capacity he is spearheading the firm's New Energy, Clean Technology and Climate Initiative. With 30 years of experience in environmental law, Jim is familiar with the geopolitical factors at play in the drive for energy security—and how the climate overlay affect clients' businesses. Jim and other Faegre & Benson lawyers monitor national and international initiatives to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and advise clients in aligning their operations with these new laws and regulations.

Under Jim's leadership, the firm's New Energy, Clean Technology and Climate Initiative will provide clients access to experienced lawyers—in nearly every practice area—who understand the challenges they face and are committed to their success in the new energy economy.

Jim offers a nationally recognized practice in environmental law. His practice has focused principally on counseling commercial, industrial and governmental clients regarding compliance and enforcement matters involving the federal environmental laws (e.g., RCRA, CERCLA, SMCRA, NEPA, EPCRA, CAA and CWA) and their state counterparts, with a particular emphasis on advising national commercial solid and hazardous waste management companies regarding the siting, permitting, operation and remediation of commercial solid and hazardous waste management facilities throughout the country.

Over the past 25 years, Jim has actively participated in the drafting and development of environmental laws and regulations at the local, state and federal levels. Most recently, he has been involved in the establishment of voluntary cleanup/brownfields initiatives throughout the United States. As a result, Jim regularly provides counsel to industrial and commercial clients regarding the purchase and sale of contaminated properties, and regarding environmental permitting and remediation due diligence issues associated with the sale and acquisition of commercial and industrial facilities.

Jim began his career as a staff attorney for the Council on Environmental Quality in the Executive Office of the President of the United States, where he helped advise President Carter regarding national environmental policy.

He then spent more than 25 years in private practice, developing one of the largest and most diverse environmental practices in the Rocky Mountain region. Significant environmental matters Jim has handled from 1977 to the present include:

• Appointed by Colorado Governor Bill Ritter to the Colorado Climate Action Plan Advisory Panel. (2009)
• Provided ongoing counsel to four successive owners of the Highway 36 hazardous waste treatment storage and disposal facility in Adams County, Colorado. Obtained necessary Certificate of Designation siting approval from the Adams County Board of County Commissioners, and successively defended that Certificate of Designation in Colorado state courts. Applied for and obtained RCRA Subtitle C permit authorizing commercial hazardous waste treatment storage and land disposal at the Highway 36 facility, and successfully defended administrative challenges to that Subtitle C permit.
• Advised the integrating contractor at DOE's Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site in Jefferson County, Colorado regarding CERCLA, RCRA and related environmental compliance matters generated by the remediation of former production facility for plutonium triggers for nuclear weapons.
• Appointed by Colorado Governor Richard Lamm to be the first Co-Chair of the Colorado Committee on Hazardous Waste Regulation (1983), by Colorado Governor Roy Romer to the Governor's Hazardous Waste Incineration Advisory Commission (1991), by Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment Executive (CDPHE) Director Patti Shwayder to her Government Reinvention Core CHANGE Group (1995), by Colorado Governor Bill Owens to the Colorado Commission on Judicial Discipline (2004 - present); and by Colorado Governor Bill Ritter to his CDPHE Transition Team.(2006)
• Authored amendments to RCRA (1980), and co-authored the Colorado Hazardous Waste Act (1981), the Colorado Hazardous Waste Siting Act (1983), the Colorado Mini-Superfund Act (1985), and the Colorado Voluntary Cleanup and Redevelopment Act (1994), the Colorado Environmental Covenants Act. (2001)
• Participated in the siting, zoning, permitting and expansion of several non-hazardous waste landfills, transfer stations, recycling facilities, and other industrial projects throughout the western United States.
• Advised two primary contractors at DOE's Hanford facility in eastern Washington regarding environmental statutory, regulatory, enforcement, and permit compliance matters at the site. Activities included advising contractors on Consent Order and Washington dangerous waste permit amendments, and assisting in administrative litigation related to amendments to the Hanford facility Tri-Party Agreement, and revisions to the site's State of Washington dangerous waste permit.
• Advised Continuum Partners regarding environmental issues associated with the $750 million Belmar brownfields redevelopment project in Lakewood, Colorado.
• Participated as the principal negotiator for the State of Colorado in a groundbreaking voluntary cleanup/Brownfields Memorandum of Agreement between Colorado and EPA Region VIII in 1996.
• Advised primary contractor to the United States Army regarding RCRA corrective action on landfill siting matters at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal in Commerce City, Colorado.
• Provided ongoing counsel to Waste-Tech, a subsidiary of Amoco, regarding the study and permitting of a hazardous waste incinerator and ash monofill in Kimball, Nebraska, including issues related to the trial burn and startup of that facility, and on related hazardous waste, water, air quality, and litigation matters related to numerous environmental permits and commercial incineration projects throughout the United States.
• Participated in the legal scoping and permitting of the $6 billion Colony oil shale project on Colorado's western slope.
• Participated in the study and remediation of, and cost allocation at, Superfund and RCRA corrective action sites throughout the United States. The Superfund and RCRA corrective action sites have included mining and mineral processing sites, chemical and pharmaceutical production facilities, wood treatment sites and facilities, as well as municipal solid waste and industrial solid and hazardous waste disposal facilities throughout the United States.
• Represented a broad array of chemical, industrial, food processing, wood treating, mining and mineral processing, and waste management facilities located throughout the United States in air quality and water quality permitting and enforcement proceedings.

Professional Recognition

• Fellow, American College of Environmental Lawyers
• The Best Lawyers in America, Environmental Law, 2007–2009
• Super Lawyers, Environmental, 2007–2009; Environmental/Land Use, 2008
• Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business, Environment, 2005–2009
• International Who's Who of Environmental Lawyers
• International Who's Who of Environmental Law

Publications

• Institutional Controls: Brownfields Superweapon or Ultimate Trojan Horse
  Natural Resources & Environment (2000)
• Environmental Law in the 90s
  National Institute on Environmental Insurance Law, San Francisco (1990)
• 1984 HSWA Amendments: Land Disposal Amendments
  Seventh Annual Summer Program on Environmental Law, Natural Resources Law Center University of Colorado Law School (1986)
• An Overview of the Emerging Hazardous Waste Law in Colorado
  University of Denver Law School Symposium on Colorado Environmental Law (1984)
• Regulating Mining and Mineral Processing Activity Pursuant to Land Quality Environmental Programs
  

Trade Organizations

• Colorado Association of Commerce and Industry Industrial Waste Committee, chair
• Colorado Hazardous Waste Management Society, founding director  
• Colorado Bar Association Environmental Law Section Advisory Council
• American Bar Association Environmental Law Committee
• Colorado Bar Association Environmental Law Committee
• Denver Bar Association Environmental Law Committee
• California Council for Environmental and Economic Balance, past member
• National Association of Environmental Professionals

Civic Associations

• Colorado Climate Action Plan Advisory Panel (2009)
• Colorado School of Mines, Board of Trustees (2008-2009)
• Jefferson County, Colorado Planning Commission, chairman (2004-2009)
• Colorado Commission on Judicial Discipline, chairman (2004-2009)