Denise G. Fellers

Over the last 10 years, Denise has worked extensively in the Superfund area including representing working groups as common counsel at large hazardous waste sites. In this leadership role, she negotiates consent decrees with federal and state agencies, works with federal and state agencies in environmental investigations and remedy selection, drafts comprehensive comments on agency decision documents, and manages consultants. She also oversees necessary technical work that interplays with clients’ legal needs, leads third-party cost recovery and contribution efforts, and supports allocation among potentially responsible parties.

Through her work on these Superfund sites, Denise represents a variety of diverse interests including oil and gas companies, aerospace corporations, chemical companies, municipal organizations, and landfill operators, to name a few.

Her experience in regulatory compliance matters involves the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA), the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the California Hazardous Substance Account Act (HSAA), the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), and California’s Proposition 65.

Most of Denise’s cases involve the strategic management of discovery issues, such as pre-litigation investigations, depositions, written discovery, preparation of expert witnesses, and resolution of various discovery disputes. She has experience drafting and arguing case dispositive motions and is adept at handling pre-trial issues such as preparation of exhibit lists, witness lists, motions in limine, designation and counter-designation of deposition testimony, and direct and cross-examination of expert witnesses.

• Served as common counsel in two major multiparty Superfund actions, including managing large-scale cost recovery efforts
• Represented an aerospace company in a large, multiparty cost recovery litigation involving CERCLA, RCRA, and state equivalents
• Represented an aerospace company in a newly listed Superfund site involving an extensive groundwater plume in a densely populated area
• Managed third-party discovery for Sempra Energy and Southern California Gas Company in litigation and regulatory matters involving the Aliso Canyon gas leak in Porter Ranch, California
• Represented an aerospace company challenging the actions of the State Water Resources Control Board and the Regional Water Quality Control Board in California
• Represented a large party at a Superfund site in Southern California, including implementation of the remedy with EPA oversight