Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP today announced that leading environmental attorney Daniella Landers has joined the firm in Houston as a partner in its Environmental and Workplace Safety practice. Landers’ national and international practice includes environmental compliance and transactional and litigation matters, along with crisis management and rapid response, including government investigations of environmental matters, enforcement defense, responses to citizen suits, cost recovery claims and Superfund litigation.

“Daniella brings a wealth of experience and skill in environmental law and is a strong addition to the extraordinary group of environmental professionals that our firm has brought together in just a few years,” said Katten Chairman Vincent A.F. Sergi.

Landers’ clients include energy companies, manufacturers, industrial facilities, financial institutions, real estate interests and other businesses. Her work on their behalf covers environmental risk assessment, environmental permitting and compliance, environmental due diligence in acquisitions and transactions, management of environmental issues affecting the upstream, midstream, downstream and renewables/alternative energy sectors, natural resources damages claims, climate change initiatives, and pollution exposure disputes.

“Daniella is an attorney whom clients seek out for her depth of experience and problem-solving skills,” said national Environmental and Workplace Safety practice co-chair Steven P. Solow, who initiated Katten’s expansion of the practice six years ago.

“The strategic growth of our practice group has resulted in a team that is able to address our clients’ most complex and sensitive legal and regulatory issues,” said Charles H. Knauss, co-chair of Katten’s national Environmental and Workplace Safety practice and one of the nation’s leading Clean Air Act lawyers.

Landers joins an Environmental practice that, in just six years, has grown to more than 40 full-time environmental and workplace safety practitioners nationwide, serving clients on civil and criminal matters, energy-focused litigation, air quality, climate change, workplace safety and major accidents. With the arrival of Landers and the recent hire of former Vinson & Elkins partner Greg C. Dillard, Katten continues to grow its Houston office, which opened in 2013.

“Daniella has an impressive track record of success with her clients, and she is a go-to lawyer for some of the world’s largest energy companies,” said Houston partner Mark L. Farley, co-chair of Katten’s national Environmental and Workplace Safety practice. “Her proficiency in a wide range of environmental areas and her reputation in the industry will be an excellent complement to our Texas team and for our clients in the United States and overseas.”

Landers was most recently chair of the Environmental team at Sutherland Asbill & Brennan LLP in Houston. In addition to her law degree, she holds a master’s degree in public administration and serves as an adjunct professor at South Texas College of Law and at the University of Houston Law Center.

Active in many industry-related organizations, Landers serves as chair-elect of the board of directors for the Houston Volunteer Lawyers, on the board of the Houston Bar Association, advisor to the American Law Institute/American Bar Association Environmental Law Program Committee and is involved with several other bar and industry groups.

“Katten’s innovative and collaborative approach in the environmental space and the breadth of top-tier talent at the firm is exceptional,” said Landers. “As a result, Katten has quickly become the place where environmental attorneys want to practice. I look forward to being part of this extraordinary team.”

Companies in the energy, chemical and manufacturing industries benefit from Katten’s unrivalled experience in major accident response, environmental civil and criminal litigation as well as the firm’s experience in assessing and developing effective compliance programs and processes that reflect industry benchmarks and regulator expectations. Government enforcement agencies have moved to couple enforcement of process safety rules with related environmental criminal investigations, seeking to utilize the vastly more severe penalties found in environmental statutes. Clients seek counsel from Katten attorneys, whose skills and experience can address the full scope of this new enforcement regime, which has the potential for significant fines, multi-year reporting obligations, criminal exposure and lasting reputational damage.

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