Environmental Law

Industrial Environment – Classified Facilities

• Audit of authorisation application files subjected to ICPE legislation (installations classées pour la protection de l’environnement – facilities classified for environmental protection) and Water Law, monitoring of procedures, and relations with the administration and third parties
• Advice on cessation of operations, restoration, and post-operational activities
• Assistance with industrial risks management (Seveso facilities, technological risk prevention plan (plan de prévention des risques technologiques – PPRT), pipelines, etc.) and pollution management
• Analysis of environmental risks related to the acquisition or transfer of companies and real estate (due diligence), drafting and negotiation of liability guarantees
• Administrative, judicial, and criminal litigation

Polluted Sites & Soils

• Recovery and redevelopment of brownfield sites
• Drafting of environmental clauses in deeds of assignment
• Monitoring of expertise measures and litigation

Waste

• Legal advice on waste management: recovery and disposal, by-product management, end-of-waste status, cross-border transfers
• Assistance in the management of excavated land and construction waste
• Waste management litigation

Permitting procedures

• Review of projects’ legal framework according to existing procedures (declaration of public utility (déclaration d’utilité publique – DUP), public participation, environmental and urban planning authorisations) and environmental constraints (Natura 2000, protected species, land clearing, etc.)
• Regulatory optimization and coordination of various environmental and urban planning procedures
• Assistance with public participation during the upstream phase (public debate, consultation under the urban planning code or the environmental code, right of initiative) and the downstream phase (public inquiry, electronic participation, parallel consultation, etc.)
• Assistance in preparing regulatory files, auditing of applications for urban planning and environmental authorisations, and auditing of environmental impact assessments
• Assistance in applying for and obtaining the authorisations: prevention principle, mitigation hierarchy (ERC – éviter, réduire, compenser), exemption for protected species, water law, compensation
• Defence of the authorisations’ legality before administrative courts, in summary proceedings as well as in regular proceedings
• Assistance and representation in pre-litigation and litigation proceedings relating to the enforcement of authorisations (inspection reports, formal notices, administrative and criminal penalties, etc.)
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