2024 Environmental Law Trends and Updates

Dennis Toft is a renowned environmental lawyer who applies a keen understanding of science and the complexities of regulatory process when addressing the wide range of issues that his clients face. He provides counsel on all aspects of environmental law, including regulatory counseling, environmental due diligence, permitting, enforcement and environmental litigation, development/redevelopment and environmental insurance. Dennis is highly regarded as one of New Jersey’s leading Brownfields redevelopment practitioners. Governor Christine Todd Whitman appointed Dennis to serve on the New Jersey Brownfields and Contaminated Site Remediation Task Force, a group created by state law to identify and market Brownfields sites. In 2002, Governor James McGreevey appointed Dennis as chairman of the task force. He was a member of Governor Chris Christie’s transition team, where he was a member of the Environmental Protection Committee. Dennis was also appointed by Governor Richard Codey and served on the New Jersey Solid Waste Advisory Council. He was also a member of Governor McGreevey’s Transition Team – Environmental Committee. Dennis regularly appears before the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, the Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, municipal land use boards and the Office of Administrative Law, and in state and federal courts. Dennis has extensive experience representing clients in numerous complicated transactions in litigation and in regulatory matters. Typical matters include assisting a client in negotiating the first environmental risk transfer agreement that was approved by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection; representing clients in obtaining all the regulatory approvals for major facilities, utility lines, hazardous and solid waste incinerators and similar controversial projects; defending and negotiating settlements of natural resource damage claims; defending clients in cost recovery actions; defending and negotiating settlements of civil and criminal enforcement actions resulting from discharges or permit violations; representing clients dealing with Clean Air Act, Water Pollution Control, RCRA and other complicated regulatory processes; and handling all aspects of complicated Brownfield transactions. Dennis played a key role in the adoption of the New Jersey Brownfields and Contaminated Site Remediation Act. More recently, Dennis was instrumental in the development and adoption of the New Jersey Site Remediation Reform Act (SRRA), which establishes a Licensed Site Remediation Professional Program in New Jersey. Dennis received his J.D. from Columbia Law School, where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar and served as a staff member and administrative editor of the Columbia Journal of Law and Social Problems. He earned a degree in physics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was elected to Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society.