The appointment of Simon, effective from 1 May 2016, takes the team's number of recognised environmental law partners to five, making it one of the largest in the UK legal sector.
Simon joined Burges Salmon as a trainee in 2004 and qualified into the Environment team in 2006. He advises on all aspects of UK and EU environmental law and regulation, including operational compliance, regulatory investigations, enforcement and criminal defence, regulatory appeals, tribunal hearings, judicial review and environmental civil claims.
Simon also advises on product stewardship and international supply chain compliance for European regimes including the REACH Regulation, the Biocidal Products Regulation and the WEEE and RoHS regimes.
In 2013, Simon was elected to the Council of the United Kingdom Environmental Law Association for a four year term.
Simon’s experience includes:
- Conducting regulatory appeals and tribunal proceedings including the first appeal under the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Trading Scheme Regulations in Northern Ireland and an appeal to the UK Secretary of State against the publication of commercially sensitive information on public registers.
- Conducting environmental civil claims for nuisance, environmental harm from products and contamination claims including defending the first wind turbine claim for visual impact in the UK; noise, dust and odour claims; and a High Court claim for migrating contamination.
- Conducting environmental judicial reviews, including regulatory decisions of the Environment Agency on behalf of hydropower developers.
- Advising on regulatory investigations and prosecutions in the energy, waste, manufacturing, chemicals and petrochemicals sectors, including in the aftermath of the Buncefield disaster.
- Acting on international indemnity claims including regulator clean-up of nuclear materials in the USA; remediation of a biochemicals facility in Sweden; and a USD billion claim for global non-compliance litigated in the Courts of New York.
- Advising on a GBP multi-million product stewardship / liability claim for environmental damage caused by the release of chemicals from a product into the aquatic environment.
- Advising on one of the first dispute resolution references to the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) in Helsinki under REACH.
Ian Salter, Head of the Projects department at Burges Salmon, said: “The appointment of Simon as a partner reflects our Environment team’s ongoing growth and positive rise in both the quantity and quality of the work we undertake for clients across the environment sector.
“Simon is an outstanding lawyer who understands our unique model and collaborative culture, which we believe delivers the best mix of advice, service and value to clients.”
Advising a variety of public and private sector clients across all areas of environmental law, the Burges Salmon Environment team is independently recognised as one of the national leaders in environmental law with leading experience in advising clients from a wide range of sectors. The team advises on all environmental issues from compliance with environmental regulations to representation in prosecutions and it has a large dedicated environmental litigation team.