Lyons Davidson’s Environment, Health and Safety team works with business partners in environmental consulting to provide rapid, authoritative advice on challenging legal issues that arise out of consulting projects.

Working behind the scenes, or as an integral part of the service you offer, we can provide ongoing project support or one-off advice on critical issues. As specialist regulatory and criminal defence lawyers, we provide certainty in the context of regulatory problems and we can help your clients get into the best possible shape to weather or see-off regulatory challenges.

Our specialist lawyers work as part of a multidisciplinary team and this allows us to provide an integrated service, where legal risks and opportunities can be managed at all stages of a project.  

Lyons Davidson have a strong track record of advising on a wide range of regulatory compliance issues including, among others:

• Waste law;
• Environmental Permitting;
• Environmental protection (contaminated land and water);
• Conservation and wildlife protection;
• Health and safety law;
• Control of Major Accident Hazards (COMAH);
• Dangerous Substances and Explosive Atmospheres;
• Construction Design and Management;
• Food law;
• Planning law;
• GLA issues;
• Agricultural law.

The compliance aspect of our work includes advising on- and if necessary, managing  - the drafting and application process for permits, planning and the compilation of safety reports and environmental impact assessments.  

Lyons Davidson’s lawyers have public sector and defence backgrounds and their familiarity with the prosecution process allows them to give practical advice on how to negotiate with enforcement bodies.

Our lawyers can advise on:

• Complex compliance issues;
• Incident investigation leadership;
• How best to avoid prosecution after an incident;
• Engaging with enforcement bodies to help shape enforcement policy;
• UK implementation of EU law.

Lyons Davidson can also use its expertise to resolve complex legal issues arising out of legal audits and the implementation of environmental management systems (EMS).

Defence of regulatory prosecutions
Lyons Davidson has an excellent track record of helping clients:

• Avoid prosecution;
• Fight cases;
• Reduce fines where prosecution is unavoidable.

Our approach is to invest time and effort during the investigative phase immediately after an incident, therefore maximising the chances that a prosecution can be avoided altogether.

The team has particular experience in handling sensitive prosecutions where adverse exposure and reputational damage are significant concerns. The team also have experience of working with PR professionals in managing these risks, where appropriate.

Managing individual liability of senior managers
The introduction of the Corporate Manslaughter Act in 2008, together with the “consent, connivance or neglect” offences in regulatory legislation, make the issue of management and individual liability more relevant than ever before.  Lyons Davidson can advise on exposure to such risks, providing both strategic and project-specific guidance on how to reduce these risks to a minimum.

EHS training for senior managers
Our lawyers are regular speakers at regulatory law conferences and seminars and we can also provide tailor-made training on issues that affect your business.

Corporate responsibility: incident management plans
The immediate aftermath of an incident is fraught with risks associated with dealing with enforcement bodies and minimising adverse publicity. In the confusion that usually follows an incident, it is of paramount importance to have a plan for effectively managing information, media and regulator contact. It is also essential to conduct internal investigations in an organised and legally compliant manner. Lyons Davidson can work with you to develop an incident-management plan, which will help manage these risks. Our lawyers are available on a 24-hour emergency line to help put this plan into action.

Legal risk assessment
For certain projects, the extent of the risks associated with environmental or health and safety breaches can be so significant that a systematic exercise in legal risk assessment is needed.

This kind of exercise goes beyond the normal scope of operational risk assessments to look at the potential costs and implications of breaches, with the aim of preparing proportionate plans and control measures.

Specialist legal advice plays a crucial role in this kind of exercise, by providing an expert assessment of:

• Circumstances that can attract liability;
• Costs of remediation;
• Fines;
• Compensation;
• Business interruption;
• Legal advice.

It also devises proportionate legal and operational measures to control these risks.

Specialist planning issues
The planning aspects of engineering and development projects often turn more on regulatory law than planning law itself: environmental impacts, major accident hazards and dangerous substances are all subject to specific legislation, which may well direct the decisions of planning authorities.

Lyons Davidson has an outstanding track record of leading negotiations with planners and enforcement bodies to navigate the network of legal constraints and planning considerations that can sometimes cause problems when interpreted too defensively by planning authorities.

Due diligence: mergers and acquisitions
Lyons Davidson’s environment/regulatory team regularly provide environmental and health & safety due diligence in corporate mergers and acquisitions. Deals are typically high-value and have included the purchase of multi-site, specialist facilities.

The usual approach of lawyers to regulatory risk is simply to obtain the relevant contractual warranties. However, because of our specialist knowledge, we are able to go further than most other firms to discover the true state of compliance and make an accurate assessment of risk.

This strengthens our clients’ positions in price negotiations, enables us to obtain stronger contractual protection for our clients and also gives them a head start in managing and resolving compliance issues after a deal has been completed.

Supply-chain due diligence
Lyons Davidson can support our business partners’ environmental auditing capabilities by offering a desk-based due-diligence process to ensure that they can achieve their environmental and sustainability obligations at each level of the supply chain. More importantly, this due-diligence process can be put on a contractual footing, to allow a fair system of redress if problems do occur.

Commercial agreements: drafting environmental provisions
Working in conjunction with colleagues in Lyons Davidson’s commercial and property law departments, our regulatory team can provide environmentally-focused contract drafting services.

This helps achieve contractual certainty in areas that are often poorly understood by traditional contract lawyers. This kind of certainty can be vital in the context of multi-contractor projects and collaborative research and development projects.

Horizon scanning
For many companies, planning and business development depends upon understanding the legislative landscape of the future. International law is driving forward sustainability-related targets on:

• Greenhouse gas emissions;
• Energy;
• Planning;
• Construction;
• Waste processing;
• Transport.

Therefore, understanding the risks and opportunities presented by impending legislation in these areas is key to a company’s long-term success. Lyons Davidson can provide a horizon-scanning service that maps out future changes in the regulatory landscape and provides a crucial part of the raw materials for strategic decision making.