Introduction to Environmental Real Estate Transactions

Karl Heisler's practice focuses on environmental and white collar law, with an emphasis on civil and criminal environmental enforcement and worker endangerment. He leads teams of attorneys and subject matter experts in responding to investigations conducted by the US Department of Justice, the US Environmental Protection Agency, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the US Chemical Safety Board, and the National Transportation Safety Board, in addition to other federal, state and local authorities. Karl routinely conducts internal investigations involving the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. He defends clients facing obstruction of justice, false statements and other Title 18 allegations. He has been engaged to assist on a number of acquisitions and divestitures of entities subject to government investigations arising out of environmental and workplace safety incidents.

Karl also is the co-chair of Katten's Electronic Discovery and Information Governance practice. He is lead e-discovery counsel in civil and criminal matters for some of the world's largest companies and routinely directs evidence preservation, collection and production initiatives in response to government investigations. Karl is a member of the firm's Technology Committee, serving as a liaison between attorneys and information technology professionals. He is a frequent lecturer on the preservation of electronically stored information, and he provides advice and counsel on corporate records and information management.

Karl's clients include public and private entities in the chemical manufacturing, construction services, waste management and energy industries.

Karl represents the Rock Creek Conservancy on a pro bono basis. The Conservancy's mission is to protect and restore Rock Creek and the waters, parks and lands of its watershed through a combination of education, advocacy and on-the-ground projects. On behalf of Katten, Karl was honored to receive the Conservancy's corporate sponsor of the year award in 2015, a year that also marked the 125th anniversary of the Rock Creek National Park, one of the nation's first national parks.

Experience

• Represents corporations, management, employees and other individuals in federal and state criminal matters.
• Represents corporate witnesses, subjects and targets of criminal investigations responding to grand jury subpoenas and government information requests.
• Provides advice and counsel in connection with the preservation of electronically stored information in response to government investigations.
• Coordinates environmental and forensic consultants in internal investigations.
• Coordinates responses to government information requests issued pursuant to the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act, the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act, and the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, among other authorities.
• Serves on the faculty for the Environmental Law Institute's annual Boot Camp, teaching a course on Due Diligence Considerations in Transactional Environmental Law to nearly 100 practitioners in public and private practice.
• Designs and provides training in corporate compliance and ethics programs, environmental management systems, records management, preparing for government inspections, and responding to major environmental incidents.