Environmental Law and litigation

jfb@bcltlaw.com
Tel: 415 228 5400

John F. Barg

John Barg is a founding partner of Barg Coffin Lewis & Trapp, LLP, and was formerly a senior partner in Landels Ripley & Diamond, LLP's Environmental Department. John has had an active criminal and civil trial practice for more than 30 years, and has tried to verdict more than 100 civil and criminal cases, including many environmental cases. His environmental litigation experience includes toxic tort, cost recovery, Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, Superfund, and environmental insurance coverage cases, as well as non-environmental complex litigation in federal and state courts.

Before entering private practice in 1984, John spent ten years with the United States Department of Justice. He served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney and Chief of Civil Litigation in the United States Attorney's Office in San Francisco, and as a trial attorney in the Criminal and Civil Divisions of the Justice Department in Washington, D.C.

In addition to his trial practice, John's professional experience and expertise include:

Co-authoring Environmental Litigation, Bancroft Whitney's California Civil Practice Guide on environmental law
Lecturing at Environmental Law Institute conferences
Serving the federal courts in providing arbitration, mediation, early neutral evaluation, and other forms of ADR to litigants in federal court
Representing White House, cabinet, and cabinet-level officers in constitutional and national security litigation

Honors

Designated by peer review to be one of the "Best Lawyers in America" in the category of environmental law
Named a "Super Lawyer" by San Francisco magazine in an annual survey of Northern California lawyers every year since the survey's inception in 2004
Named one of the Bay Area's top environmental lawyers by Bay Area Lawyer magazine
Listed in the International Bar Association's Who's Who Legal guide, as determined by independent research with clients and peers of those named

Military Service

Commissioned service in the United States Navy in Vietnam and Philippines
Retired Commander, United States Naval Reserve

Education

Golden Gate University, J.D., cum laude, 1974
Law Review; Legal Writing and Research Instructor
San Jose State University, B.A., Political Science, cum laude, 1968

Representative Matters

Defended Union Pacific Railroad Company as owner of contaminated property in a toxic tort action brought by 30 plaintiffs whose drinking water wells and properties were impacted by chlorinated solvents from other sources (two neighborhood dry cleaners) in a lengthy jury trial; the jury returned a defense verdict, finding that contaminants from our client's property had not migrated in groundwater to any plaintiff's well or property.
Represented defendants in Polanco Act litigation, including trial and appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, concerning petroleum and metals contamination in Stockton
The United States Supreme Court recently affirmed a federal district court's determination, obtained by Barg Coffin Lewis & Trapp, LLP attorneys following a bench trial, holding that the environmental harm at a Superfund site was reasonably capable of apportionment and rejecting the imposition of joint and several liability under CERCLA. Burlington Northern v. United States, 129 S. Ct. 1870 (2009)
Represented Cargill, Inc. in San Francisco Baykeeper v. Cargill, Inc., in which the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that a Cargill pond near San Francisco Bay was not within the jurisdiction of the Clean Water Act. The Ninth Circuit opinion is 481 F. 3d 700 (9th Cir. 2007)
Successfully defended law firms in binding arbitration of fee dispute with Townsend & Townsend & Crew in connection with Microsoft Antitrust Litigation
Successfully defended a $52 million claim asserted against a real estate development company, involving 1,100 acres in Los Gatos, California, and recovered over $18 million on a counterclaim relating to the same property after a one-month jury trial
Represented a major oil company in multiple lawsuits brought by more than 14,000 plaintiffs concerning a release of a chemical catalyst from a San Francisco Bay Area refinery
Represented an oil company in a London arbitration and California litigation seeking coverage from European and Bermuda insurers for a settlement with 13,000 individuals who claimed property damage and bodily injuries from an industrial accident in the United States, recovering more than $55 million in insurance proceeds