Practice Strengths

24 Hour Emergency Response Number:

1.216.621.0200

Any single emergency can generate countless setbacks, including operational, service, and, yes, legal problems. Our Emergency Response Team helps companies around the clock and across the country to mitigate and manage the legal matters resulting from crisis situations. Our objective is to aid in the rapid resumption of normal and ongoing operations, while helping clients avoid immediate and future surprises.

 

While management brings a situation under control and moves everyone toward business as usual, we deal with potential liabilities by working closely with management, investigative agencies, insurance companies, legitimate claimants, employees and other stakeholders. Our diverse legal backgrounds and locations help to ensure we respond quickly with attorneys who have experience with the particular nature of an emergency. Their backgrounds range from plant fires to gas line explosions to environmental mishaps and other natural or man-made disasters.

Crisis Qualifications

When facing a crisis, a company must make quick decisions that may have serious and long-term consequences on their liability. Knowing firsthand the value of swift and responsible actions, we offer a service capability that includes:


 

• Immediate access, 24 hours a day, seven days a week by attorney(s) with relevant industry and crisis experience.
• Productive and prompt communications with investigative agencies, government organizations, insurance companies, potential claimants, employees and the media.
• Assistance with safety, environmental response, fact-finding efforts and litigation prevention/mitigation.

Our legal and technical background includes:


 

• Extensive dealings with OSHA, federal and state agencies, such as the EPA, the U.S. Coast Guard and emergency planning commissions.
• All facets of emergency environmental response: contamination of air, soil, surface water and groundwater; natural resources damage; and negotiating authorizations to resume operations.
• Hands-on experience in class actions, mass toxic tort cases, personal injury and wrongful death claims, property damage and nuisance lawsuits, and employee intentional tort actions.
• Legal services for workers' compensation, employee or survivor benefits, and union and workforce controversies.
• Counsel concerning medical, insurance and white collar criminal issues.
• Coordinating expert support with causation investigations; environmental impact analysis; medical, psychological and neuropsychological assessments; mechanical and safety process analyses; demographics; and many other areas.

BakerHostetler also assists clients prior to the onset of a crisis. We perform environmental and safety audits, develop regulatory compliance plans, conduct litigation and insurance exposure analysis, and advise companies on the preparation of their own emergency response plans.

Emergency Cases

On-site, throughout negotiations and in the courtroom, BakerHostetler assists clients with the immediate and ongoing counsel that clients require to recover from a disaster.

 

Oil Spill—A tanker spilled 400,000 gallons of crude oil off of the California coast and we represented the time charterer involved in the accident. For several weeks, we staffed an emergency response office. We also represented our client in all aspects of litigation, including the state's natural resources damage claim and resulting class action claims.

Tank Farm Release—A large release of petroleum and aviation jet fuel forced the evacuation of nearby homes. Our Emergency Response team was an early and active member of the company's crisis management team. We helped coordinate the company's immediate response to the incident, including negotiations with the state and federal EPA, and communications with the city and county governments. Later, we defended the company in a series of lawsuits filed by commercial entities and homeowners.

 

Chemical Plant Disaster—A chemical plant explosion killed three workers, destroyed several 1-million-gallon storage tanks, and reportedly contaminated the nearby Ohio River. We managed all environmental investigations and litigation matters. No fines or penalties were imposed upon our client. The court denied a motion for class certification and the plant was rebuilt without any legal or regulatory delays.