Alice M. Shanahan

Alice brings more than two decades of experience advising clients on complex environmental, regulatory, transactional, and redevelopment matters. She represents a diverse client base, including Fortune 500 energy, oil and gas, and chemical companies, real estate developers, investment entities, and closely held businesses, on high-stakes environmental issues and sites, liability management, and transactions involving contaminated properties. She has served on secondment as environmental counsel to a Fortune 50 petroleum company, supporting environmental compliance, risk management, and regulatory matters across the corporation’s Midwest Region.

Alice’s practice spans the full lifecycle of environmental matters, including regulatory compliance, site investigation and remediation, cost recovery and allocation, environmental risk assessment, environmental liability transfer, and the redevelopment of environmentally impacted properties. She regularly counsels clients on the environmental aspects of corporate and real estate transactions, including due diligence, environmental site assessments, and the negotiation of purchase and sale agreements, liability transfers, divestments, and related environmental provisions.

She represents clients in matters arising under key federal and state environmental laws, including CERCLA (Superfund), RCRA, the Clean Water Act, and similar state statutes such as the New Jersey Spill Act and the New York Navigation Law. Alice has extensive experience handling some of the most complex Superfund and sediment sites in New York, New Jersey, and the Midwest, with particular focus on petroleum-related operations, soil and groundwater contamination, and large-scale remediation projects.

Alice is a seasoned negotiator who regularly interfaces with federal, state, and local regulatory agencies, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and environmental agencies in New York and New Jersey. She leads negotiations involving consent decrees, administrative orders, and multi-party settlements, and has significant experience developing and pursuing claims against potentially responsible parties.

In addition to her regulatory and transactional work, Alice plays a central role in environmental litigation strategy. She leads multidisciplinary teams of hydrogeologists, engineers, chemists, and other experts to develop and implement effective case strategies, coordinate technical analyses, and prepare matters for litigation and resolution. She also regularly advises in-house counsel and corporate leadership on emerging environmental laws, regulatory developments,  and compliance strategies.

Alice further supports clients by developing training programs, policies, and internal guidance materials designed to strengthen compliance and advance operational and risk management objectives.