Partner

Bill Warren practices in the field of environmental law.  He is a managing partner of the firm and practices in our Princeton office.  Bill chairs our New Jersey Environmental Practice Group.  His practice encompasses virtually every aspect of environmental law, including:

• Cost recovery litigation
• Toxic tort litigation
• Complex, multiparty environmental litigation
• Administrative appellate practice
• PRP group formation and management
• Negotiation and litigation with federal and state environmental agencies
• Counseling with respect to federal and state remedial requirements
• Counseling with respect to the New Jersey Industrial Site Recovery Act
• Counseling with respect to environmental issues arising out of the purchase or sale of real estate, businesses or companies
• Counseling with respect to environmental issues arising out of leaseholds

Bill was, we believe, the first person to develop the concept of the "springing easement" to protect sellers of property from post-closing environmental obligations.  He was one of the first lawyers to serve as common counsel at a Superfund site.  He also may be the only lawyer ever to secure a "waste-specific release" from USEPA as part of a CERCLA consent decree and was the first lawyer to convince NJDEP to issue an ISRA letter of nonapplicability for the spinoff by a publicly traded company of one of its operating divisions.  He has extensive experience in both prosecuting and defending virtually every type of environmental litigation, as well as in negotiating the environmental aspects of business transactions.

Bill developed our computerized Freedom of Information Act program, which permits us to access public documents which are usually maintained in obscurity and frequently overlooked.  He developed one of the finest environmental libraries in the country and computerized it so that arcane information, often vital to the practice of environmental law, is available in minutes which would otherwise take weeks to locate, if at all.

In General.  After a clerkship with the Hon. John R. Bartels, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, he became associated with Dewey Ballantine in New York where he engaged in complex litigation practice.  Bill moved to New Jersey in 1982 to develop an extensive environmental practice which he brought to Drinker Biddle in 1995.  Bill is admitted to the bars of both New Jersey and New York and frequently lectures on topics of interest in environmental law.