Environmental Technical Advisor

Alex H. Vincent

Litigation & Dispute Resolution, Environmental

Overview

Alex Vincent assists Mayer Brown attorneys in a wide range of environmental compliance, litigation and transaction issues, including technical and regulatory research, due diligence, soil and groundwater investigations and remediation, and public comment submittals on behalf of industry, developers, financial institutions and trade associations.  During litigation, Alex manages and provides technical oversight of consulting and testifying experts.  He develops facts, technical arguments and support for clients’ positions based upon historic, discovery and site investigation data for use in deposition, trial and settlement.  He critiques and defends against plaintiffs’ causation theories, develops causation alternatives and exculpatory information, and identifies potential responsible parties for those causation alternatives.  He drafts discovery requests and interrogatory questions and responses.  He assists in expert witness preparation for deposition and trial and assists in the scope of cross examination of plaintiffs’ experts.  After a recent trial victory, the client's responsibility was reduced from a $50 million initial cleanup estimate and $50 million punitive damages to a $7.6 million settlement.

Alex participates in the  development of environmental consultants’ work during field investigation, remediation, and negotiations with, and reporting to, adjacent property owners and regulatory agencies.  In a recent effort, he selected a neutral sediment remediation consulting firm suitable to parties tasked with cleaning up a tar-contaminated river.  He successfully worked with each party’s experts and the third party expert to develop, negotiate, and secure agency acceptance for a proposed remedy, which was approximately $30 million less than the initial preferred remedies.  In one of two recent petroleum contamination disputes, technical arguments using environmental forensics, historical research, contaminant hydrogeology, and underground storage tank system integrity culminated in three expert reports presented during mediation by our consulting experts, which allowed our client to settle for less than 15 percent of the  damage claim and save approximately $2 million.

Alex has been successful at several sites in obtaining “No Further Investigation and/or Remedial Action” letters from the respective state and regional environmental regulatory agencies.  In real estate financings, corporate acquisitions, brownfields, and BRAC property redevelopment, he participates in the analysis and documentation of environmental risks and conditions and cleanup costs for sellers, purchasers, and lenders.

Alex was involved in similar matters as Technical Advisor at another large, international firm from 1997 to 2000.  He  was a Hydrogeolgist at GeoTrans, Inc. from 1990 to 1997, a nationally recognized groundwater consulting firm, where in addition to similar activities, he was involved in groundwater pump-and-treat performance evaluations; landfill siting, investigations, and permitting; and computer modeling of groundwater flow, transport and clean up.

Related Services & Industries

Education

  • University of Missouri-Rolla, MS Geology: Environmental and Groundwater
    Masters Thesis: Trichloroethylene Contaminated Groundwater in Elkhart, Indiana
  • Illinois State University, BS, magna cum laude, Geology
  • Wheaton College

Languages

  • English
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