Charles J. Dyer

Biography

Charles J. Dyer concentrates his practice in the areas of state and federal environmental law and litigation, admin­istrative law and litigation, land use law, public law, and complex commercial litigation. His litigation, regulatory and transactional practice includes environmental litigation and counseling representation on behalf of clients throughout New England and elsewhere. He has experience representing clients in environmental land use and administrative permitting appeal litigation, contracts disputes, product liability, toxic tort litigation, insurance coverage, general commercial litigation, as well as regulatory compliance and enforcement, facility environmental permitting, and defending environmental cost recovery lawsuits under Massachusetts Chapter 21E and the Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA).

Mr. Dyer has counseled clients in corporate merger, acquisition and divestiture situations regarding environmental liabilities and due diligence matters. He has advised clients on the acquisition of facilities involving complex multisite transactions, many with historic contamination as well as ongoing operational environmental compliance issues, to identify and assess the risks and liabilities and allocate them among the parties to achieve client objectives. Such assessments often involve not only environmental conditions at and near the subject property to evaluate risk, but also involves advice regarding the need to transfer or amend permits for ongoing operations, facilitate such transfers, and evaluate whether client business plans can be accomplished under existing authorizations. He has advised electric power generation clients in strategic participation in air emissions rulemaking proceedings, including negotiations with policy-level senior officials at the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) and the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, as well as in the submission of public comments on proposed regulations.

He has counseled utility, commercial, and industrial clients on environmental permitting matters and related emission control plans. Mr. Dyer has provided litigation and regulatory counsel to developers including wetlands permitting appeals and for a multi-faceted $330 million waterfront hotel and condominium development involving zoning appeals, negotiation of construction mitigation agreements, and securing dismissal of a Chapter 91 waterway license appeal brought by a public interest group, through litigation in the Massachusetts Superior and Appeals Courts. He has represented industrial clients regarding waterfront facility redevelopment projects and proposed facilities in the ports of Providence, RI; Boston, MA; and Everett, MA, including strategic air permitting advice, navigational dredging improvements, and resolution of an administrative appeal of an enforcement action by MassDEP for violation of a water quality certification during a dredging project.

Mr. Dyer has served as special outside counsel for a major U.S. city advising a multi-department task force includ­ing the city’s transportation, police, fire, homeland security, and legal departments in administrative proceedings before the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, in related litigation, and to guide the city through the federal 49 C.F.R. §397 process for designating routes for the highway transportation of Non-Radioactive Hazard­ous Material. Mr. Dyer has represented a variety of corporate and government clients in federal and state court actions, including an appeal in the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court and petition for certiorari to the United States Supreme Court. He also has represented multiple clients in dispute resolution matters, including the multi-party mediation of environmental liability and cost allocation at several complex NPL Superfund sites.

He has extensive experience with Brownfields site redevelopment, securing MA Brownfields Tax Credits, and facili­tating contaminated site re-use, environmental compliance and guiding projects through related CERCLA, Massa­chusetts Chapter 21E and Massachusetts Contingency Plan (MCP) regulations, site investigation, risk assessment, response actions, and strategic use of activity and use limitation procedures. Mr. Dyer also has broad experience in land use, environmental permitting and regulatory compliance issues, including administrative appeals and judicial review proceedings involving the Massachusetts Wetlands Protection Act, Chapter 91 waterways regulations, Chapter 40A, Public Trust Doctrine and Article 97 EEA Land Disposition Policy.

Prior to joining Gonzalez Saggio & Harlan, Mr. Dyer was counsel at K&L Gates LLP, where he practiced environmental law, toxic tort and general commercial litigation for fifteen years. In addition, Mr. Dyer worked for the U.S. EPA Office of Regional Counsel, Region I, Boston, as a legal intern in the Superfund Office. His publications include “U.S. Supreme Court Restores Measure of Balance and Reason to Apportionment of CERCLA Liability, Environmental, Land and Natural Resources Alert”, May 7, 2009.

Between 1991 and 1994, Mr. Dyer worked as a hydrogeologist for ERM, a leading global provider of environmental, health, safety, risk, and consulting services, where he performed environmental investigations and remediation work at more than 70 sites, including several national priority list Superfund sites. Mr. Dyer has diverse environ­mental consulting experience managing soil and water sampling, monitor well installation, recovery well design and development, soil gas surveying, geophysics, aquifer test design and analysis, hydrocarbon detection and remediation, and soil excavation. He provided project and litigation support services in contaminant hydrogeology and sophisticated hydrogeological analysis and interpretation, contaminant fate, transport and partitioning calculations, groundwater flow remodeling, and environmental oversight of adverse-party consultants. Mr. Dyer has guided property transfer assessments for major industrial facilities; conducted emergency response actions; Phase I, II, III, and IV investigations under the Massachusetts Contingency Plan and M.G.L. c. 21E and RCRA/CERCLA RI/FS studies.

His professional affiliations have included the American Institute of Professional Geologists; Boston Bar Associa­tion (Environmental Law Section); National Ground Water Association, Division of Ground Water Scientists and Engineers; Water Environment Federation (National Groundwater Committee, 1993- 1998) and the American Bar Association (Toxic Tort and Environmental Law Committees, Torts and Insurance Practice Section 1998-2008, and Air Quality Committee, Environmental Law Practice Section).

Mr. Dyer earned his J.D. at Stanford Law School, where he was Editor-in-Chief of the Stanford Environmental Law Journal. He received his M.S. from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Geology (Hydrogeology) and earned his B.A., cum laude, from Colgate University, with dual majors in Geology and English, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, graduating with Honors in English. He was selected for inclusion by Boston Magazine and Law and Politics in the Massachusetts Super Lawyers: Rising Stars list for environmental law (2005, 2006 and 2007). Mr. Dyer is admitted to practice in Massachusetts, the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, and the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.

Education & Bar Admissions

Education

• Stanford Law School, J.D.
• Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, M.S. in Geology (Hydrogeology)
• Colgate University, B.A. in Geology and English, cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa

Bar Admissions

• Massachusetts
• U.S. District Court, District of Massachusetts
• U.S. Court of Appeals, First Circuit

In the News

• 1/24/2013 - GSH Welcomes Charles J. Dyer