- Overview
- Experience
- Distinctions
- News & Media
- Events
- Affiliations
Overview
Pamela Elkow has nearly 30 years of experience representing clients in remediating or redeveloping brownfields; purchasing or selling businesses or real estate with significant environmental liabilities or challenges; obtaining permits; providing environmental, health, and safety compliance counseling; and responding to governmental enforcement. Her clients include large companies engaged in the remediation of legacy properties, portfolio companies in the business of acquiring and remediating contaminated property for investment or resale, and municipalities engaged in redevelopment efforts.
Pam’s approach to clients and their issues is pragmatic and business-oriented. With respect to property redevelopment, she understands that every client has a different risk profile and each property has a different intended use, and any remedial strategy must fit those criteria, while being cost-effective and protective of human health and the environment. When representing the buyer or seller in a transaction, she works with the transaction team to manage due diligence and negotiate the allocation of environmental liabilities, with awareness that the role of the environmental attorney is not simply to identify the risks associated with the deal but to find a solution if one exists.
Many of Ms. Elkow’s clients are manufacturers or other large institutions, such as universities, with ongoing environmental health and safety issues associated with their business operations. She advises them on day-to-day compliance and permitting issues, works with them to compile or review health and safety manuals, and defends them against enforcement actions resulting from allegations of violations of environmental or occupational health and safety regulations.
A Fellow of the American Colleague Environmental Lawyers, Pamela is also a member of the American Bar Association’s Section of Energy, Environment and Resources Council, and a past Chair of the Section’s Environmental Transactions and Brownfields Committee. She is a frequent lecturer and writer on environmental issues for audiences such as developers, environmental consultants, and other lawyers.
Experience
- Counseled client on environmental aspects of acquisition and remediation of various parcels that will become larger redevelopment parcel. Advice included retention of environmental consultant, review of environmental investigation reports and remedial cost estimates, and compliance with remediation regulations. Redevelopment will include hotel and office building.
- Engaged by a Fortune 100 company to dispose of real estate consisting of parcels of unimproved land and two office buildings, together with negotiating leases in excess of 70,000 square feet for each of two new corporations resulting from a corporate divestiture and restructuring.
- Represented quasi-governmental authority in condemnation of former steel manufacturing site for redevelopment.
- Counseled Dominion Resources on environmental aspects on acquisition of Millstone Nuclear Power Plant and remediation of environmental conditions at the plant.
- Represented administrative agent and syndicate of lenders in connection with $200 million revolving and term-loan facility to fund a “going private” transaction, a dissenting shareholder reserve and working capital needs, secured by real property located throughout the United States and a blanket lien on all other assets.
- Represented Farrell Corp., a manufacturer of processing equipment for primarily the rubber and plastics industries, in its sale to a German buyer.
- Representation of a well-known diversified technology, media, and financial services company in deconstruction and remediation of a manufacturing facility with environmental, historic, and wetlands challenges in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
- Representation of a diversified aerospace company in response to OSHA citations. One citation was dismissed completely. The other was settled by withdrawal of “willful” citation. Penalty reduced to $16,500. Appeal handled out of New York Regional Solicitor’s Office.
- Representation of a public-private partnership with the State of Connecticut to redevelop, operate, and maintain Connecticut’s 23 highway service plazas. The 35-year agreement was the result of extended negotiations with the state Department of Transportation. The service plaza overhauls will also include “green” initiatives to bring the facilities up to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standards, improve water runoff patterns, and install idle-reduction technology for use by trucks on the Connecticut Turnpike, also known as Interstate 95. Including projected revenues, initial construction, and reinvestments, the benefit to the State of Connecticut is estimated to be almost $500 million over the term of the agreement.
- Representation of Hackman Capital LLC, a real estate investor group, as outside environmental counsel for various environmental issues related to a portfolio of 19 light industrial properties in New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Colorado, and Texas.
Acquisitions and Sales
- Representation of an elevator manufacturer in relocating and expanding its manufacturing facility to Bridgeport, Connecticut. The firm helped the client obtain a loan from the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD) to buy the property. The firm also helped the client apply for an urban sites grant from the DECD and the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection to remediate historic contamination on the property that was limiting its redevelopment.
Environmental
- Represented owners who had purchased a manufacturing facility involved in a messy bankruptcy proceeding with several creditors. The company, designed and built to manufacture solar cells for photovoltaic components, was entangled in numerous legal hurdles. Assisted in unraveling the complex obstacles by helping the company understand the value and potential uses of the specialized manufacturing infrastructure installed in the facility, including clean manufacturing rooms, redundant air and power systems, and enhanced electrical capacity.
Distinctions
- Named American College of Environmental Lawyers 2018 Fellow
- Listed in Who’s Who Legal: Environment 2018 as being among the world’s leading Environment lawyers.
- Ranked in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business in the state of Connecticut in the area of Environment since 2007
- Listed in The Best Lawyers in America® in the area of Environmental Law, 2006-2021 (Copyright 2016 by Woodward/White, Inc., Aiken, SC)
- Listed in Who’s Who Legal: The International Who’s Who of Environment Lawyers 2009, 2013 (Copyright by Law Business Research Ltd)
- AV® Preeminent™ Peer Review Rated in Martindale-Hubbell™ in the areas of Environmental Law and Occupational Safety and Health Law (Martindale-Hubbell Peer Review Ratings is a trademark. AV Preeminent is a certification mark of Reed Elsevier Properties, Inc.)
- Listed as one of the Top 25 Women Lawyers in Connecticut by Connecticut Super Lawyers® 2011, 2012 (Super Lawyers® is a registered trademark of Key Professional Media, Inc.)
- AV® Preeminent™ Peer Review Rated in Martindale-Hubbell™ as a Top Woman Lawyer in the Northeast for Environmental Law
- Listed in Connecticut Super Lawyers® in the area of Environmental Law since 2007 (Super Lawyers® is a registered trademark of Key Professional Media, Inc.)
- Highlighted in the 2017 edition of Chambers USA Guide to America’s Leading Lawyers for Business for placing in the Top Tier of Environmental Lawyers in Connecticut.
- Listed in the 24th Edition of The Best Lawyers in America
Awards
- Connecticut Bar Association, 2006 Pro Bono Award
News
- 29 Carmody Torrance Sandak & Hennessey LLP Attorneys Selected for Best Lawyers®
- Carmody Torrance Sandak & Hennessey LLP Attorneys and Practice Groups Receive Honors from Chambers USA
- 41 Carmody Torrance Sandak & Hennessey LLP Attorneys Selected to the 2019 Super Lawyers®, Rising Stars in Connecticut Lists
- 15 Carmody Torrance Sandak & Hennessey LLP Attorneys Selected for Best Lawyers®
- 33 Carmody Torrance Sandak & Hennessey LLP Attorneys Selected to the 2018 New England Super Lawyers® and Rising Stars Lists
- 41 Carmody Torrance Sandak & Hennessey LLP Attorneys Selected to the 2018 Super Lawyers®, Rising Stars in Connecticut Lists
- Partner Pamela Elkow Named American College of Environmental Lawyers 2018 Fellow
- Pam Elkow presents on What to Do When Inspected by OSHA?
- Pam Elkow moderates a panel at the CEDA’s Connecticut Brownfield Conference
- Pam Elkow presented to the Fairfield County Commercial Brokers Network
- Pam Elkow presented at the Mitchell College Speaker Series on Business and the Environment
- Pamela Elkow has been appointed to the Connecticut Port Authority by Governor Malloy
- Carmody Welcomes New Environmental Partner Pamela Elkow
- 25 Carmody & Torrance Attorneys Selected to the 2012 Super Lawyers®, Rising Stars in Connecticut List
Alerts
- Environmental Law Alert: DEEP Issues Notice of Intent to Reissue Without Modification Two of its Wastewater General Permits
- Environmental Law Alert: DEEP Proposes New Rule for Solvent Contaminated Wipes
- Environmental Law Alert: EPA Proposes Ban on Use of TCE in Degreasing and Drycleaning
- L&E Law Alert: Connecticut Supreme Court Rules Punitive Damages Not Available Under State Anti-Discrimination Statute
- Occupational Safety and Health Law Alert: Change to OSHA’s Recordkeeping Rules
- Labor & Employment Law Alert: New Connecticut Laws
- Environmental Law Alert: Connecticut is Closer to Having Spill Reporting Regulations
- Occupational Safety and Health Law Alert: OSHA Teaming with DOJ On Workplace Safety
- Environmental Law Alert: “Who Knew That Was Regulated?”
- Health Care Law Alert: OSHA has Announced that it is Expanding Enforcement Efforts
- Environmental Law Alert: Significant Environmental Hazard Law
Publications
Events
- 2020 CBIA Energy and Environment Conference
- Continuing Ed Day
- SEER Essentials: The ABCs of Corporate Due Diligence Regarding Environmental Conditions
- Master Class on Complex Environmental Liability Resolution
- Transactional Jeopardy, Getting the Deal Done at the ABA Section on Environment, Energy and Resources
- CT Small and Diversity Suppliers: Is Your Company Ready to Win Contracts with Large Buyers?
- Environmental Updates & Anatomy of a Deal
- Human Resources Roundtable Breakfast Series
- Speaker, Risk Management + Legal Bank Regulatory Call
- American Bar Association: SEER Fall Conference
Affiliations
- American College of Environmental Lawyers
- American Bar Association, Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources, Council , and past Chair of Environmental Transactions and Brownfields Committee
- Connecticut Society for Women Environmental Professionals, Founder and Former Co-chair
- Environmental Professionals of Connecticut
- Urban Land Institute
Community
- The Business Council of Fairfield County, Treasurer/Secretary and member of the Board of Directors and Executive Committee, 2020
- Connecticut Port Authority, Board of Directors, 2019
Testimonials
Events & Speaking Engagements
Negotiating Skills for Personal and Professional Advancement
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