William A. Baker

William Baker concentrates his practice in the area of environmental law, including environmental regulatory compliance, environmental permitting, environmental litigation, environmental due diligence and environmental counseling.

He has represented and counseled a variety of private and public sector clients with a wide range of environmental compliance needs, spanning from property owners and redevelopers dealing with site remediation-related legal obligations and technical requirements to State and federal environmental permitting for off-shore dredging operations. Mr. Baker has extensive experience dealing with a broad range of issues pertaining to environmental law and regulations in connection with enforcement proceedings before the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in addition to litigation of cases in the State, Federal and Administrative law courts of New Jersey. His practice also encompasses planning and land use matters in which environmental issues arise.

Mr. Baker’s environmental practice includes transactional matters involving the purchase or sale of contaminated or potentially contaminated real property, including environmental due diligence, drafting and negotiation of environmental provisions to agreements of sale or lease. He has also had extensive involvement in advising clients on site remediation projects relating to New Jersey’s Industrial Site Recovery Act (ISRA), Site Remediation Reform Act (SRRA), underground storage tank regulations and related cleanup requirements, as well as handling matters relating to legal liability under the New Jersey Spill Compensation and Control Act and the federal Superfund (CERCLA) statute, along with issues pertaining to compliance with NJPDES permitting, wastewater management planning as well as hazardous substances reporting requirements under New Jersey and federal law. He has been significantly involved in the prosecution and defense of environmental cost recovery actions related to the investigation and remediation of Brownfield and Superfund sites and other contaminated properties. He has also successfully represented clients seeking to obtain insurance coverage for environmental claims (particularly pre-1986 policy claims) and in environmental insurance coverage litigation.

Before joining the firm in 2005, Mr. Baker was associated (from 1990 to 2004) with the law firm of Schwartz, Tobia and Stanziale, with a similarly focused and diverse environmental law practice.