Named an American Lawyer Litigator of the Week in March 2021 and a Law360 MVP in environmental law in October 2023, Eric is a veteran environmental litigator in the Boston office of Beveridge & Diamond, with a national practice representing major companies and municipalities in complex litigation under the Clean Water Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act, CERCLA, RCRA, FIFRA, the Clean Air Act, and their state analogues. His practice encompasses environmental and mass torts, class actions, state and federal enforcement actions, and federal citizen suits under all major federal environmental statutes. He has handled cases in state and federal courts throughout the United States, litigating civil and commercial matters before juries, trial and appellate courts, arbitrators, and administrative tribunals.

Eric leads teams defending commercial and environmental class actions, including the many class actions targeting industrial facilities with negligence and nuisance claims based on alleged community impacts to air, water, and property. In the past year, Eric defeated certification of a proposed statewide class in Florida federal court alleging commercial contract violations against a nationwide solid waste services provider and secured dismissal of similar contract claims in federal courts in Colorado and Arkansas. In 2021, he achieved similar results, before class certification, in two proposed federal class actions: one in Pennsylvania based on an alleged odor nuisance at a landfill, and another in South Carolina based on alleged commercial contract violations.

Superfund litigation is a major part of Eric’s docket; he has led litigation teams at some of the most significant CERCLA sites in the United States, including sites in and around Los Angeles, Portland Harbor, and Onondaga Lake near Syracuse, New York. In 2022, Eric led a nine-member joint defense team to trial in federal court over one of the most high-profile contaminated sites in California history and secured a landmark ruling under CERCLA law that sharply reduced the geographic scope of the alleged site, reducing potential defense liability by nearly $1 billion. 

Eric also recently helped lead teams in the successful defenses of two of the most significant environmental citizen suits in recent years – a $4 trillion Clean Water Act suit filed against a major U.S. transportation company, and a landmark Safe Drinking Water Act suit against the City of Newark, New Jersey, for alleged lead in drinking water, for which he was recognized as Litigator of the Week by AmLaw Litigation Daily.

He also litigates in administrative forums. In a recent case challenging a nationwide federal enforcement initiative regarding hazardous waste storage tanks under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, Eric persuaded an administrative law judge within the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to reject the agency’s own interpretation of its regulations and to dismiss an enforcement action against Eric’s client, a manufacturer of personal care products. 

Eric is an experienced trial lawyer, and when cases cannot resolve on favorable terms for his clients, he is unafraid to take them to trial. In addition to the CERCLA trial noted above and a follow-up trial in the same case earlier this year, Eric’s notable trial results include a complete defense jury verdict in federal court in Boston on multimillion-dollar environmental cost recovery claims and a weeklong Clean Water Act case in Seattle federal court over allegations of unauthorized pollutant discharge into Washington state waterways. Eric also regularly defends victories – and occasionally challenges defeats – in state and federal appellate courts across the country.

In addition to his environmental work, Eric serves as Deputy General Counsel of Beveridge & Diamond and maintains an active pro bono practice in the areas of civil rights and landlord/tenant law. He is especially proud of his longstanding service on B&D’s Pro Bono Committee, both as a former chair and now as the Committee’s liaison to B&D’s Boston office. He also served for many years as adjunct faculty at The George Washington University Law School, teaching trial and appellate advocacy. He is currently developing an environmental mock trial program in the Boston Public Schools. Prior to his legal practice, he served as a judicial law clerk at the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. He speaks and writes regularly on environmental litigation, including in Natural Resources & Environment, the journal of the ABA’s Section on Environment, Energy, and Resources (SEER).

Eric’s core professional belief spans his careers in education and law: success lies in making complex subjects simpler.