Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani welcomes David F. Michelman to the firm's Philadelphia office. He joins the Environmental/Toxic Tort and Insurance practice groups.
Michelman has been active in the field of environmental law for more than 35 years. He is recognized for his ability to take a leadership role in litigating or settling Superfund cases involving multimillion dollar cleanups of landfills and related claims. He is often asked to serve as Liaison Counsel and/or Common Counsel, to represent the common interests of large groups of parties. In this role, he has successfully steered such cases away from expensive, uncontrolled litigation, toward a managed, cost effective ADR process that is used as a model for other sites. He negotiates de micromis and de minimis settlements designed to get individual parties out of these cases at an early stage. He also participates in global settlement negotiations, on behalf of all of the remaining parties, to settle all of the federal or state governments’ claims against them.
"We are pleased that David has agreed to bring his tremendous knowledge base in environmental law to our office and to the Gordon & Rees Environmental Practice Group," said William Shelley, Managing Partner of the Philadelphia office. "He will be a tremendous resource to our commercial and insurance clients as well."
Michelman’s practice also involves counseling clients on environmental compliance issues, permitting and real estate transactions, and representing them in litigation involving landfill cleanups and natural resource damage claims, air quality and asbestos management issues, soil and groundwater discharges from ongoing manufacturing operations, disturbances of wetlands, leaking underground storage tanks, stormwater management problems, violations of the Emergency Planning and Community Right-To-Know Act and FIFRA, and toxic tort claims for property damage and personal injuries.
He is admitted to practice in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Massachusetts, U.S. District Court, District of New Jersey, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Pennsylvania, U.S. Court of Appeals 3rd Circuit and U.S. District Court, District of Massachusetts.
He received his law degree from Georgetown University Law Center and his undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania.