Jim G. Derouin

Partner

Collier Center
201 East Washington Street, 16th Floor
Phoenix AZ 85004
TEL: 602.257.5237
FAX: 602.257.5299

Jim G. Derouin is a partner in the Phoenix office of Steptoe & Johnson LLP and practices in the firm’s Litigation and Regulatory & Industry Affairs Departments.

Practice Overview
Jim has practiced environmental compliance and defense law for more than 35 years. He has represented national clients on a broad range of environmental and natural resource issues. These include environmental liability, groundwater contamination, surface water discharges, solid and hazardous waste disposal, mining, toxicology, endangered species, civil and criminal enforcement and complex project permitting.

Jim is a respected authority on environmental law. He has been a featured speaker at over 50 presentations nationwide, including one at the Institute of Politics at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. In addition, Jim served as a member of the Superfund Subcommittee of the EPA’s National Advisory Council for Environmental Policy and Technology and as a member of the Board of Scientific Counselors for the Centers for Disease Control.

Environmental Regulatory Practice
Jim has represented private and public clients in fourteen states and seven Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regions on sophisticated environmental and natural resource matters. Jim has negotiated numerous civil settlement agreements with state agencies, municipalities and the EPA. He served as Chairman of a steering committee managing the investigation and remediation of a federal Superfund site which involved more than one hundred parties. Jim has also successfully represented sellers and buyers of state Superfund sites and a natural resource development company on a $1 billion project. The latter project involved dozens of state, federal and local permits and sensitive negotiations with regulators, legislators, environmental groups, local governments and Native American communities. Jim has also defended clients in civil enforcement and criminal actions in both judicial and administrative forums.

Environmental/Toxic Tort Litigation Practice
Jim represents clients on matters involving water taste and odor issues, groundwater treatment, contaminant biodegradation and groundwater contaminant transport. He manages and oversees the work of remediation consultants, hydrogeologists, engineers and groundwater modelers in litigation of all types.

Environmental Legislative Practice
Jim was the primary actor in drafting and negotiating more than two dozen environmental and natural resource laws. These laws involve surface water quality, solid and hazardous waste, air quality, PCBs, dioxin, pesticides, fluorocarbons, mining reclamation, groundwater quality and inter-basin water transfers. He was the primary negotiator of two landmark pieces of state groundwater legislation: the Wisconsin Groundwater Act and the Arizona Environmental Quality Act.

Legal Rating
Jim has earned the rating of AV, the highest rating awarded by the Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory based on confidential opinions from members of the bar and the judiciary. In Martindale-Hubbell’s own words: “An AV Rating shows that a lawyer has reached the height of professional excellence. He or she has usually practiced law for many years and is recognized for the highest levels of skill and integrity.”

Professional Recognition
Jim was a member of numerous Wisconsin Legislative Council and Department of Natural Resources committees, was Chairman of the Arizona State Bar Environmental and Natural Resources Law Section (1989-1990), was Chairman of the Phoenix Environmental Quality Commission (1989-1992) and was a member of the Arizona Regulatory Review Council (1986-1993). He most recently served as co-chairman of the Arizona Groundwater Cleanup Task Force appointed by the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality and the Arizona Department of Water Resources. Jim was appointed by EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman to EPA’s National Advisory Counsel Superfund Subcommittee which considered reforms to the federal Superfund law. Jim was also appointed by the Department of Health & Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson to the Centers for Disease Control Board of Scientific Counselors.

Noteworthy

Listed in Best Lawyers in America 2008 for Environmental Law
Received a #1 Ranking in Chambers USA 2007, America's Leading Business Lawyers; Environment (Arizona)
Listed in Southwest Super Lawyers 2007 for Environmental Law
Member, Superfund Subcommittee, EPA’s National Advisory Council for Environmental Policy and Technology
Member, Board of Scientific Counselors, Centers for Disease Control, United States Department of Health and Human Services
Jim has been listed repeatedly in Best Lawyers in America, published by Woodward/White.
In September 1999, Phoenix Magazine listed him in an article titled “Top Lawyers,” and in December 1999, he was awarded the Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, where he received his B.A. in Economics in 1967.
Speaker at over 60 presentations nationwide, including one at the Institute of Politics at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.

The following is a list of his presentations over the last five years:

“Environmental Justice Claims-The Future of Environmental Law, ” The Future of Mass Tort Litigation in America, American Bar Association Tort and Insurance Practice Section, Toxic Torts and Environmental Law Committee, Phoenix, Arizona, March 21-23, 2002.
“The Trial of an MTBE Groundwater Contamination Case,” The 12th Annual West Coast Conference on Contaminated Soils, Sediments and Water, The Association for Environmental Health and Sciences and the United States Navy, San Diego, California, March 18-21, 2002.
“Competing Approaches to Compliance Innovation: What Bait for What Fish?” U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Multi-State Work Group, San Diego, California, June 5-6, 2000.
“Staying Afloat in the Desert, Municipal Environmental Compliance Seminar,” Dames & Moore and Steptoe & Johnson LLP, Phoenix, Arizona, October 9, 1997.

News

Speaking Engagements

Climate Change Changes Everything, February 8, 2008, What You Need to Know Regarding Emerging Regulatory & Litigation Issues Concerning Global Warming (A Steptoe-Sponsored Event)
Current & Emerging Environmental Law Issues, December 7, 2006, (A Steptoe-Sponsored Event)

Publications

Environmental Newsflash, Issue 12
New Climate Change Tort Lawsuit Asserts Civil Conspiracy Claim
March 10, 2008
Framing the Debate: Global Climate Models
February 25, 2008
Climate Change Changes Everything
PowerPoint Presentation
February 8, 2008
A Summary of the Kyoto Protocol and the Marrakesh Accords
December 3, 2007
Environmental Newsflash, Issue 11
What a Federal Greenhouse Gas Cap and Trade Program Might Look Like: A Summary of The Lieberman/Warner Bill - America’s Climate Security Act of 2007 (S. 2191)
November 5, 2007
Climate Change Changes Everything: The Coming Waves of Environmental (Not Personal Injury) Litigation Relating to Global Warming
Vol. 22, No. 40
October 11, 2007, Toxics Law Reporter
Environmental Newsflash, Issue 10
Court Dismisses Climate Change Toxic Tort Suit Brought by the State of California
September 18, 2007
Environmental Newsflash, Issue 9
Rulings in Pair of Important Greenhouse Gas Cases
September 13, 2007

Member, American Bar Association, Section of Environment, Energy and Resources, Special Committee on Second Generation Issues ABA
Member, State Bar of Arizona, Chair, Environmental and Natural Resources Law Section, 1989-1990
Member, State Bar of Wisconsin
National, Regional, State and Local Member, Superfund Subcommittee, EPA’s National Advisory Council for Environmental Policy and Technology, 2002
Participant, Multi-State Working Group on Environmental Management Systems
Co-Chair, Arizona Department of Environmental Quality and the Arizona Department of Water Resources Groundwater Cleanup Task Force, 1996-97
Chair, Phoenix Environmental Quality Commission, 1989-1992
Member, Phoenix Water Quality Advisory Committee, 1986
Member, Arizona Governor’s Regulatory Review Council, 1986-1993
President, Scottsdale Ranch Community Association, 1987-88
Member, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Foundation Board of Directors
Recipient, Distinguished Alumni Award, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire
Member, Rotary Club 100, Phoenix, Arizona
In addition, Mr. Derouin has served on many Arizona and Wisconsin Legislative Council Committees

Alternate Office(s)

Areas of Practice

Education

Bar & Court Admissions