Strategic Growth, Innovation Drive Hunton Andrews Kurth’s Global Chemicals Practice

As companies from nearly every sector that produce or sell consumer and commercial products and their chemical components increasingly become the focus of government enforcement activity, Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP has enhanced the firm’s global chemicals, products and hazardous materials team to help clients navigate the evolving legal landscape.

The firm’s chemicals team includes attorneys and consultants with extensive government, industry and private practice experience. The team also includes a PhD toxicologist and a PhD chemist who provide broad capabilities in technical matters. 

“State and federal environmental laws regulating chemicals have become as ubiquitous as the substances they target and even more complex,” said Eric Murdock, head of Hunton Andrews Kurth’s administrative law team. “The firm’s investment in the chemicals team and commitment to creating innovative solutions positions us well to assist clients who face the uncertainty of shifting regulations, government enforcement and litigation.”

Recent additions and promotions within the firm’s chemicals, products and hazardous materials team include:

Greg Wall (Richmond, Virginia) Wall is a former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency  senior attorney who joined the firm in 2020 and was promoted to partner in April 2022. With over 15 years of experience in environmental law, Wall assists clients in regulatory counseling, enforcement defense, litigation, and transactional matters. His experience provides him the ability to navigate the regulatory process and enforcement arena to assist clients in solving complex environmental matters, with specialized knowledge in the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA)/Superfund, brownfields, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), and legal issues involving Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS).

Nancy Beck* (Washington, D.C.) Beck, PhD, DABT, joined the firm in 2021 and serves as the Director of Regulatory Science. As a PhD toxicologist, Beck has a deep scientific understanding of chemical risk assessment, risk evaluation of environmental pollutants (including from mobile and stationary sources) and environmental policy, including chemical regulations and compliance programs. She provides advice on matters concerning pesticides, new chemicals, existing chemicals (including PFAS), hazardous air pollutants, food additives and contaminants, and biotechnology. She has over 20 years of applied public health experience, sixteen of which were from her time in government, including senior leadership positions at the EPA and the White House.

Javaneh Tarter (Washington, D.C.) Tarter joined the firm as a senior attorney in November 2021. She previously worked as in-house counsel for the American Coatings Association where she provided regulatory and government affairs services, and advice and counsel concerning environmental management, occupational safety and health, product stewardship, and chemical policy. She most recently worked in private practice providing legal counsel to clients, including companies and trade associations, on TSCA, FIFRA, OSHA, Proposition 65, and state chemical regulatory and enforcement matters. She has advised clients on internal compliance audits, new pesticide registrations and amendments to registrations under FIFRA, TSCA premanufacture notifications and significant new use rules, and rulemakings related to the implementation of the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21^st Century Act. She also has experience representing clients in legal challenges to agency rulemakings in federal court.

Paul Nyffeler (Richmond, Virginia) Nyffeler, PhD, joined the firm as a senior attorney in August 2022. A PhD chemist, he counsels clients on the impact of environmental law and policy, including chemicals subject to regulations and compliance programs, with robust experience in unregulated contaminants, new chemicals, existing chemicals (PFAS), hazardous air pollutants, and biotechnology. Nyffeler has more than 15 years of experience providing clients with regulatory counseling, compliance advice, and first-chair environmental and tort litigation counsel at both the trial and appellate levels.

Existing partners leading the chemicals practice include:

Matt Leopold (Washington, D.C.) Leopold worked on high stakes TSCA rulemaking and FIFRA pesticide litigation while serving as general counsel for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency before joining the firm as a partner in 2020. His practice focuses on assisting clients with environmental litigation, enforcement defense, emerging environmental policy and regulations, navigating federal and state permitting, and chemical licensing. Prior to his EPA tenure, Leopold served as general counsel for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and was an environmental litigator at the U.S. Department of Justice. Leopold has experience in an array of major federal environmental statutes, including the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act, CERCLA, and RCRA,

Malcolm Weiss (Los Angeles) Weiss is a regulatory and litigation partner who advises clients on a wide variety of environmental laws and matters, including air quality, product/chemical safety, environmental auditing, due diligence, facility permitting and closure, emissions trading, environmental insurance and consumer product safety matters. He assists clients with navigating the rulemaking processes, understanding and complying with complex regulatory programs, challenging agency enforcement actions and defending against citizen suits. Weiss developed the firm’s Proposition 65 Notice Tracker, a publicly-accessible, interactive tool designed to monitor and identify enforcement efforts under California’s Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act, one of the most stringent chemical regulations in the country.

Alexandra Cunningham (Richmond, Virginia) Cunningham is a nationally recognized toxic tort lawyer and co-head of the firm’s products liability and mass tort litigation practice group. She represents major corporate clients in all aspects of product liability, mass tort and toxic tort and environmental litigation, including successfully defending catastrophic injury and death claims; asbestos, benzene, formaldehyde, hydrogen sulfide, solvent and silica-related premises and product liability claims; large-scale environmental toxin and exposure claims, involving PFAS, PAHs, fluorides, coal combustion residuals and hexavalent chromium; and claims of bacterial contamination in food and beverage products.

The chemicals, products and hazardous materials practice at Hunton Andrews Kurth comprises a global team of lawyers working from our offices in Brussels, Beijing, Atlanta, Austin, Charlotte, Washington, D.C., Richmond, London, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. The lawyers on our cross-disciplinary team have experience advising clients on compliance with federal and state product safety standard regulations, trade regulations and guidelines, and applicable health, safety and environmental laws and regulations, as well as product licensing and authorizations.

*Not an attorney