Paul Hastings Adds Chambers-Ranked Environmental Litigator in Texas

DALLAS – Further expanding its market-leading environmental litigation practice, Paul Hastings LLP today announced that premier environmental litigator and crisis management adviser Stephen Fitzgerald has joined the firm as a partner in Dallas.

Fitzgerald extends Paul Hastings’ Chambers Band 1-ranked environmental practice into Texas and continues the build of a market-leading environmental litigation platform that includes the recent addition of Band 1-ranked Brian Israel, who co-chairs the practice out of the firm’s Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., offices with Navi Dhillon, who is based in the firm’s San Francisco office. Israel’s move united the firm’s premier, Band 1 practice in California and his Band 1 practice in Washington, D.C., to form a powerhouse team.

Advising clients in Texas and nationally, as well as in Europe and South America, on high-profile matters across the environmental spectrum, Fitzgerald has experience in more than 180 environmental impact sites across all regions of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. His litigation experience includes state, federal, and appellate matters spanning diverse environmental, toxic tort, and land use issues, and he is a leading crisis response adviser to general counsel and C-suite executives in managing acute environmental safety incidents. Fitzgerald also advises clients on environmental risks and liabilities associated with financial transactions.

Fitzgerald’s practice focuses on defense of clients in state and federal enforcement actions, as well as private party lawsuits involving numerous federal environmental laws, including the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), the Clean Water Act, and the Clean Air Act. His recent representations include matters involving the release of hazardous substances into U.S. waters near environmental justice communities, PFAS contamination in rivers supplying drinking water to millions, and chemical explosions near residential areas. He joins from Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP.

“I look forward to collaborating with the firm’s prominent environmental litigators, who operate at the leading edge of the practice, and I’m excited to offer my clients access to all the firm’s leading practices across the country and around the world,” said Fitzgerald, whose clients have included AT&T, Celanese, Exxon Mobil, Occidental Petroleum, PepsiCo, Shell, Sherwin-Williams, and Sunoco.

In Texas, where Paul Hastings has more than tripled its headcount in the last year and expects to have more than 100 lawyers by Q1 2025, Fitzgerald follows an impressive roster of top-tier talent that has recently joined the firm, including:

• a Chambers Band 1-ranked eight-partner, 25-lawyer finance team from Vinson & Elkins LLP in Dallas and Houston;
• Chambers-ranked cybersecurity and litigation partner Michelle Reed from Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP in Dallas;
• trial and regulatory enforcement partner Manuel Berrelez from Vinson & Elkins in Dallas;
• Chambers-ranked complex commercial litigator Paul Genender from Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP as chair of the Texas litigation practice and co-chair of the firm’s Dallas and Houston offices;
• a Chambers-ranked three-partner, seven-lawyer corporate team, including David Elder, Chris Centrich, and Patrick Hurley from Akin in Houston;
• restructuring partner Charles Persons from Sidley Austin LLP in Dallas; and
• tax partner Alex Farr from McDermott Will & Emery in Dallas.

 

About Paul Hastings

With widely recognized elite teams in finance, mergers & acquisitions, private equity, restructuring and special situations, litigation, employment, and real estate, Paul Hastings is a premier law firm providing intellectual capital and superior execution globally to the world’s leading investment banks, asset managers, and corporations.