Andrew Cooper has led the Environmental Practice of Dickstein Shapiro since joining the firm in 2000. Mr. Cooper’s practice focuses exclusively on environmental law, an area in which he works with the firm’s Corporate & Finance, Energy, and Public Policy & Law Practices. Mr. Cooper has a great deal of experience in many aspects of environmental law, including litigation, transactions, and counseling.

AREAS OF CONCENTRATION

Mr. Cooper’s litigation experience includes extensive pre-trial and trial work in cases involving environmental property damage, both private and enforcement CERCLA (Superfund) claims, cost recovery and contribution, lender liability, toxic torts, government enforcement actions, and/or insurance policyholder representation. His wide-ranging practice has encompassed both single plaintiff and mass torts, state and federal courts across the country, and private and government actions.

Mr. Cooper has worked with clients in shifting potential environmental liabilities in the transactional context. He has directed environmental due diligence in numerous transactions – in the context of both mergers & acquisitions and financing – for clients in the roles of lenders, borrowers, purchasers, or sellers. In coordinating and supervising scientific and technical experts, he has drafted the necessary contractual agreements and overseen environmental property surveys and audits.

In the counseling context, Mr. Cooper has assisted clients concerning environmental liabilities related to business structure and insurance coverage. He is well-versed in compliance audits and related privileges and immunities. He has many years of experience in securing permits and other approvals and in negotiating with federal and state agency personnel.

PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND

Mr. Cooper previously practiced in the Environmental Group of Arent Fox Kintner Plotkin & Kahn, PLLC in Washington, DC.

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

Mr. Cooper is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia, New York, and Connecticut. He also is admitted to the bars of the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and the U.S. District Courts for the District of Columbia, the District of Maryland, the District of Connecticut and the Southern and Northern Districts of New York.

Mr. Cooper is a member of two ASTM committees and currently serves as a Vice-Chair of the ABA’s Superfund and Natural Resource Damages Committee within the Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources, where he is also a past Vice-Chair of the Special Committee on Quick Teleconferences. He also is a past Chair of the ABA Young Lawyers Division’s Natural Resources and Environmental Law Committee, in which capacity he drafted a resolution and successfully argued for its passage before the ABA/YLD Assembly. In addition, Mr. Cooper has served as the liaison between the ABA Young Lawyers Division and both the Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources and the Standing Committee on Environmental Law.

COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES

Mr. Cooper is the firm Captain for the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington, where he also acts as a Program Chair for The Network. From 2002 to 2005, Mr. Cooper served as Chair of the New Leadership Division, State of Israel Bonds. From 1993 to 2001, Mr. Cooper served as pro bono General Counsel to Washington Literacy Council, Inc., an organization dedicated to reducing adult illiteracy in the District of Columbia. From 1996 to 2006, he served as an elected member of the Board of Directors (and as an appointed member of many committees) of Adas Israel Congregation in Washington, a synagogue of some 1,900 families.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

• Co-author, “Identifying Successor Corporations Liable Under CERCLA and Pursuing Insurance Coverage for That Liability,” Environmental Claims Journal (April 2008);
• Co-author, “Supreme Court to Decide Boundaries of Government Liability Under CERCLA,” The Procurement Lawyer (Spring 2007);
• Co-Author, “Reducing Risk and Increasing Investment,” Mondaq (May 21, 2004) available at www.mondaq.com/article.asp?articleid=26211;
• Author, “Yet Another Thing to Worry Over” (article on SEC-related disclosures of environmental liabilities), National Law Journal (Sept. 29, 2003);
• Co-author, “Maryland Brownfields Legislative Developments,” ABA Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources Newsletter (July 2001) available at www.abanet.org/environ/committees/envtab/newsletter/july01/cooper.shtml; 
• Primary Author, “EPA Issues Revised Policy on Supplemental Environmental Projects,” EPA Administrative Law Reporter (June 1998) and Chemical Waste Litigation Reporter (July 1998) (lead article in both publications);
• Co-author, “Good News for Lenders and Fiduciaries Under Superfund,” Probate & Property (May/June 1997);
• Co-author, “Liability for Hazardous Waste,” chapter in B. Dunaway, The Law of Distressed Real Estate (Clark Boardman Callaghan 1985-97);
• Author, “New Protections From Environmental Liability,” The Practical Lawyer, (Feb. 1997);
• Co-author, “In the Recently Passed Appropriations Bill, Congress Clarified When Lenders and Fiduciaries Are Liable Under CERCLA . . .,” National Law Journal (Nov. 11, 1996);
• Author, “New Lender and Fiduciary Liability Protection Under Superfund,” New York State Banking Journal (Fall 1996);
• Co-author, “Teaming Up With Consultants,” Legal Times (Apr. 17, 1995) and The Recorder (Autumn 1995); and
• Co-author, “Even You May Need An Environmental Consultant,” Barrister (Summer 1994).

SELECTED SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS

• Panelist, “The Supreme Court’s Rulings on the Certiorari Petitions for the Post-Aviall Cases, and What’s Coming,” ABA Nationwide Quick Teleconference Program (February 2007);
• Panelist, 99th Annual Air and Waste Management Association Conference and Exhibition, Plenary Session on Environmental Liability, (June 2006);
• Conference Co-Chair, 28th National Spring Conference on the Environment, ABA Standing Committee on Environmental Law (June 1999);
• Program Chair, “A Civil Reaction,” ABA Annual Meeting (1997);
• Program Chair, “Buying and Selling Contaminated Properties,” ABA Annual Meeting (1996); and
• Moderator, Lexis/Counsel Connects (online) National Environmental Law Forum (1994-98).

REPORTED CASES

• New York State Electric & Gas Corp. v. FirstEnergy Corp., 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 35141 (N.D.N.Y. 2007), rev’d & remanded by 2009 U.S. App. LEXIS 9667 (2nd Cir. May 5, 2009);
• Consolidated Edison Company of New York, Inc. v. UGI Utilities, Inc., 310 F. Supp. 2d 592 (S.D.N.Y. 2004), affirmed in part, rev’d & remanded by 423 F. 2d 90 (2nd Cir. 2005);
• Rochester Gas & Electric v. GPU, Inc., 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 96167 (W.D.N.Y. Sept. 25, 2006) and 2004 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12939 (W.D.N.Y. July 6, 2004);
• National Telephone Cooperative Ass’n v. Exxon Corp., 38 F. Supp. 2d 1 (D.D.C. 1998) (not involved in appeal before D.C. Circuit);
• Foster v. United States, 922 F. Supp. 642,  922 F. Supp. 663,  926 F. Supp. 199 (D.D.C. 1996),  130 F. Supp. 2d 68 (D.D.C. 2001);
• Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co. v. Atlantic Research Corp., 847 F. Supp. 389 (E.D. Va. 1994); and
• Aaberg v. ACandS Inc., 152 F.R.D. 498 (D. Md. 1994).

EDUCATION

Mr. Cooper received his B.A. from Yale University (1986), and his J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School (1991), where he served as Senior Editor of the Journal of International Business Law.