Catherine Johnson

Environmental General Counsel PC is an environmental boutique law firm based in the San Francisco Bay Area. We have decades of experience with all aspects of environmental law, including compliance, enforcement, cleanups, complex litigation, natural resources, risk allocation in loans and acquisitions -- with special expertise in sophisticated transactions, Proposition 65, pollution legal liability policies, vapor intrusion, asbestos-containing materials, Environmental Health & Safety programs, environmental claims in bankruptcy, and development projects. 

EGC attorneys are veteran environmental practitioners. Our attorneys have practiced with some of the leading environmental departments and law firms in the country, including Paul Hastings, Holland & Knight, Beveridge & Diamond, Pillsbury Winthrop, Jeffers Mangel Butler & Mitchell, Barg Coffin, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, and Hanson Bridgett.  One of our partners has served as counsel for environmental regulatory agencies, including the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board and the California Coastal Commission.

EGC represents a wide range of industries, including real estate (single-family homebuilders, multi-family residential owners, developers, commercial property owners), consumer products, fashion and accessories, personal care industry, social media, pet food, chemical manufacturing and distribution, industrial manufacturing, food processing, high tech, maritime and transportation industry, and recycling. 

Our clients include Fortune 500 and S&P 500 companies, national and international privately held companies, publicly traded companies, public agencies, family businesses, trusts, and individuals.

We are engaged and active in our field as frequent speakers and writers and we contribute to the environmental legal community as leaders of local and state bar associations. Two of our partners are former Chairs of the California Bar's Environmental Section; two of our partners are former chairs of the San Francisco Bar's Environmental Section – and one of our partners serves as the current Chair of the Section. We are also active on the Executive Committee of  the County of Alameda's Environmental Bar. Our collective experience now stands at almost 200 years.

Education

• Smith College
• University of Virginia, School of Law

Biography

• Catherine specializes in California and federal environmental law, representing a broad range of clients and industries, including manufacturing facilities, national transportation companies, food companies, a recycling facility, and leaders in the commercial real estate and multi-family housing industry. She has represented several of her current clients for decades, including a national Real Estate Investment Trust, developers, and a marine terminal. Catherine’s areas of expertise include brownfields development, soil vapor intrusion, Proposition 65, pollution legal liability insurance policies, hazardous and solid waste, landfills, Superfund sites, electronic waste, underground storage tanks, asbestos-containing materials, lead-based paint, mold, radon, methane gas, OSHA, Porter-Cologne Act, Truck & Bus Regulation, CERCLA, RCRA, Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, and all aspects of the investigation, cleanup, and closure of contaminated properties. Catherine has special expertise in vapor intrusion and contaminated sites, major development projects (including associated agreements such as CLRRA Agreements and PPAs), and environmental due diligence. Catherine has handled enforcement actions brought by federal, state, and local agencies under a variety of laws, including one of the first U.S. EPA enforcement actions brought under the California Truck & Bus Regulation. Catherine’s transactional and compliance practice at EGC is backed by years of litigation experience, where she served either as lead counsel or co-counsel in several major cases, including citizens’ suits claims (Prop 65, stormwater), CERCLA cost recovery claims, and claims for property damage associated with subsurface contamination and soil vapor intrusion. Catherine was lead attorney for the landmark case, U.S. v. Chapman, 146 F.3d 1166, 1169 (9th Cir. 1998) (the first case to limit EPA’s ability to recover its litigation fees in a CERCLA cost-recovery action)and she was lead co-counsel for SF Baykeeper v. Levin Enterprises, (N.D. CA, 2013) (the first decision to define limits to stormwater permit requirements for the transportation industry). Catherine is Chair of the Executive Committee of the Environmental Section of the Bar Association of San Francisco.