American Lawyer's Litigation Daily selected Washington, DC Principals Jimmy Slaughter, David Friedland, Anthony Michaels, Joshua Van Eaton, and Baltimore Principal Roy Prather as runners-up for "Litigator of the Week" for April 3, 2020. Litigation Daily chose the team, which also included Associate Meghan Morgan (Boston), based on their recent win on behalf of Wheelabrator Technologies, the National Waste and Recycling Association, and the Energy Recovery Council in securing a ruling striking down the Baltimore Clean Air Act.

On March 27, 2020, a federal judge in Baltimore issued a precedent-setting preemption decision holding that state and federal pollution regulations preempt local ordinances. Wheelabrator Baltimore, L.P. v. Mayor and City Council of Baltimore,--- F.Supp.3d ---, 2020 WL 1491409 (D.Md.). Judge George Russell III's decision voided the Baltimore Clean Air Act, an ordinance that imposed unprecedented air emissions limits on certain industrial facilities, and in particular targeted a major waste to energy facility (Wheelabrator Baltimore) and a major medical waste incinerator (Curtis Bay Medical Waste Services). The City ordinance sought to force the facilities to shut down or install costly pollution control equipment to meet air emission limits that would have been the most stringent ever enacted in the country, far exceeding federal and state requirements.

Click here for the full article (subscription required) and here for B&D’s more in depth article about the decision, including links to other media coverage.