Geoffrey K. Barnes has more than 25 years of experience in environmental law and related issues involving workplace exposure standards and toxic tort claims. He is consistently listed in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Business Lawyers and has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America for more than 10 years. He also appears in The International Who’s Who of Environmental Lawyers 2009.
Mr. Barnes’ practice involves corporate counseling and litigation before state and federal courts and agencies.

Mr. Barnes handles matters involving federal and state air, water, and solid and hazardous waste laws enforcement claims; private party claims for cost recovery or diminution in property value; insurance claims for recovery of environmental cleanup costs; environmental criminal proceedings; employee exposure claims; and disputes over environmental indemnities. His experience includes merger, acquisition and divestiture matters, new source development, brownfield projects and loan transactions. He also has significant experience in defending major enforcement actions in a broad range of industries including manufacturing, chemicals, iron and steel, and mining operations.

Representative Experience

• Evaluating environmental liabilities, drafting and negotiating agreements, and negotiating and resolving federal and state enforcement and bankruptcy claims, all leading to the purchase of a manufacturing company out of bankruptcy.
• Completing a complex brownfield project involving the redevelopment of a former manufacturing operation, with partial federal and state funding.
• Successfully reviving the 1975 Reserve Mining case and obtaining dismissal of the federal injunction against the current owner of the former Reserve Mining facility. United States et al. v. Northshore Mining Company, 8th Cir. Case No. 08-1423 (2009).