Hong N. Huynh

Representative Experience

• Public Entities and Local Government Plus

  • Served as general counsel to several special districts and as senior counsel to a county, advising on legal and policy matters affecting general municipal administration and public works operations in water management (flood control levees and drainageways), public roads and right of ways, county transportation infrastructure, and emergency management.

  • Advised on all aspects of municipal law and board governance, including board parliamentary process; executive authorities; public meetings and records; public ethics; legislation and local ordinance codification; jurisdictional boundaries; boundary changes; public finance; revenue development (utility/service fees and system development charges); administrative law; judicial validation proceedings; executive actions and orders; Oregon Tort Claims Act; human resources; and municipal dissolution and merger.

  • Reviewed, drafted, and negotiated legal documents to support the planning, development, financing, construction, operation, maintenance, and closure of public works in flood management, water drainage, transportation, and public right of ways. This included state legislation and local ordinances; intergovernmental agreements; joint contracting authority agreements; public procurement contracts; utility franchise agreements; land use and building development permits; real estate documents (e.g., easements, right of way, and agreements for purchase, sale and development); facility and service agreements; federal funding and project development agreements; state cooperative funding agreements; and emergency declarations.

  • Specialized knowledge in the areas of Oregon municipal law; Oregon Tort Claims Act; easements and right of way; district boundary change; emergency response; health and safety, drainage law; federal Flood Control Act; National Flood Insurance Act, urban renewal, building development services, and public surveys and maps.

• Natural Resources Management and Permitting Plus

  • Served as chief counsel to local flood and drainage management special districts on environmental, natural resources, and natural disaster issues, including assessing impacts of real property interests and encroachments, and drafting and negotiating intergovernmental agency agreements. Also advised on compliance with flood control regulations and programs of the USACE and FEMA, ESA, NEPA, Rivers and Harbors Act (including Section 408 permitting), and Water Resources Reform and Development Act of 2014.

  • Acted as lead counsel on environmental and natural resources permitting requirements for the siting, construction, and operation of large infrastructure projects or facilities, including a levees, and drainageways, public roads, NASCAR racetrack, windmill farms, a liquid natural gas marine terminal and the associated pipeline project, metal anodizing facilities, fuel stations, and a marine shipping terminal. Successfully analyzed the transfer of, developed permitting schedule and strategy for, and advocated through the progression of permitting or approval processes under the CWA, CAA, RCRA (including solid/hazardous waste and UST regulations), NEPA, ESA, Migratory Bird Treaty Act, Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, Federal Land Policy and Management Act, Rivers and Harbors Act Sections 10 and 408, and Water Resources Reform and Development Act of 2014.

  • Counseled property owners and drainage districts on common and statutory drainage law and impacts from development.

  • Counsel to an agricultural operation on a water reservoir siting and development that implicates jurisdictional questions under the 2015 Clean Water Rule, the reasonableness of the impact analysis and mitigation measures, and Section 401 certification under the CWA. Advised and reviewed an offsite wetlands mitigation plan and conservation covenants.

• Environmental Litigation Plus

  • Water Quality Defense: Defended a variety of clients against federal CWA claims of EPA, the Oregon DEQ, and citizen groups in Oregon and Washington that led to a favorable bench-trial verdict on civil penalties and to favorable out-of-court settlements. Clients have included food processors, confined animal feeding operations, and sewer, recycling, manufacturing, chemical, energy, and property management companies. Sample litigation experience include:

    • OSPIRG v. Pacific Coast Seafoods, No. 02-924-HA (D. Or. 2002);
    • Northwest Environmental Defense Council v. Coast Seafoods Co., No. 3:16-cv-05906 (W.D. Wash. 2016);
    • Olympic Forest Coalition v Coast Seafoods Co., No. 3:16-cv-05068 (W.D. Wa. 2016).
    • United States v. The New Portland Meadows, Inc., No. 00-507-AS (D. Or. 2002)

  • Toxic Tort Defense: Advised and defended clients against toxic tort claims, including lead in paint and drinking water, mold, PCBs, radon, and vapor intrusion conditions, leading to dismissal of claims or favorable out-of-court resolutions. Clients have included school districts, colleges, and heavy equipment and metal manufacturers. Sample litigation experience include:

    • Wilhite et al. v. University of Oregon, No. 16CV29281 (Or, Lane County, Or. Cir. Ct. 2016)
• Environmental Regulatory Compliance Plus

  • Water Quality: Advised numerous commercial and industrial entities, including seafood processors, agricultural growers, juice and alcoholic beverage producers, confined animal feeding operations, and heavy equipment and metal manufacturers, on water quality issues. Examples are the impact of facility remodeling, construction, and expansion efforts to permitting status as old source or new source under the CWA, operational compliance with NPDES permits and Oregon’s WPCF permits (including holding pond and land-application requirements), and the impact of proposed rulemaking or permitting changes by agencies.

  • Land Quality: Advised multinational pulp and paper, metal manufacturing, lumber, and chemical companies and fuel station operators on compliance with RCRA and related regulations, such as on financial assurance requirements, storage, transporting, and disposing of hazardous waste, including transportation through international boundaries, hazardous and solid waste characterization determinations, generator requirements to avoid TSDF status, storage containment requirements, and sale of contaminated properties.

  • Air Quality: Advised multinational pulp and paper, manufacturing, food processing, and investment companies on complex CAA issues, including global climate change, new source review requirements, new source performance standards, routine maintenance exemptions under the prevention of significant deterioration regulations, the national emissions standards for hazardous air pollutants, determination of appropriate control technology, and odor-control regulation.

  • Toxic Tort: Advised public and private school entities and institutions on environmental conditions, such as contaminants in drinking water and radon and mold levels in indoor air; experienced in assessing regulatory requirements and agency guidance standards, developing strategy compliance and implementation plan, and advising on parent and community outreach and communication efforts.

  • Workplace Safety: Advised public entities, including school districts and public colleges, on issues affecting indoor air quality (radon), water quality (lead and metals), OSHA requirements, and other environmental conditions (PCBs, lead paint).

• Environmental Cleanup Plus

  • Advised a wide range of clients on the investigation and remediation of single-party and multiparty sites, including CERCLA Superfund sites listed on the National Priority List, and state’s equivalents, with the goal of obtaining a no-further-action determination, and defended them in allocation process and enforcement actions to minimize environmental liability. Clients have included heavy equipment and metal manufacturers, pulp and paper, seafood processors, lumber, chemical, investment, fuel, and property development and management companies, financial institutions, native American tribes, and public entities (such as educational institutions and local governments), as well as nonprofit organizations.

  • Extensive experience includes conducting investigation and remediation in remote, rural settings, including remote Alaska locations, and mitigating potential claims of VOC groundwater contamination and vapor intrusion concerns.

  • Lead counsel to a multinational manufacturer of metal-handling equipment company in a state RCRA remediation of soil and groundwater contaminated with hydrocarbons and volatile organic compounds; provided strategic advice to avoid potential class action RCRA/toxic tort claims, to mitigate liability arising from potential vapor intrusion, to access residential neighborhood homes to sample and install mitigation system, and to manage potential claims of diminution of property value.

  • Represented a hops farm of more than 120 acres on the cleanup and closure of a former creosote facility with PCP, petroleum, and dioxin contamination in federal RCRA corrective-action cleanup.

• Environmental Insurance Recovery Counseling and Litigation Plus

  • Assist clients in searching for historical insurance documents, filing of claims, and seeking coverage for environmental costs from insurance companies at legacy contaminated sites. Also advised them in the purchase of pollution legal liability policies to minimize environmental risks associated with transactions involving contaminated properties.

  • Aggressively pursued and litigated against insurance companies on behalf of a ship-repair company, a seafood processor, an industrial property owner, and a community college that lead to coverage for the cost of investigation and cleanup of contaminated sites (including a CERCLA Superfund site) and assessment and remediation of Natural Resource Damages under historical comprehensive general liability or excess liability policies, as well as environmental impairment liability policies.

  • Sample Litigation Experience

    • GE Property & Casualty Insurance Co., v. Portland Community College, No. CV 04-727-HU, 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 40188; 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 401189 (D. Or. 2005);
    • Century Indem. Co. v. Marine Group, LLC, No. 3:08-cv-1375 (D. Or. 2008).
• Environmental Transactions Plus

  • Assisted public- and private-entity clients in the due diligence of buying, selling, and foreclosing on real property and businesses that involve contaminated property and pollution control systems.

  • Drafted, reviewed and negotiated contracts, leases, purchase and sale agreements, and access agreements to minimize clients’ environmental liability as buyers and sellers of businesses and real property, or as operators of pollution control systems. Also evaluated tools to mitigate liabilities, ranging from Phase I and II environmental investigations, pollution legal liability policies, prospective purchaser agreements, and agency assurance letters.

  • Guided institutional and individual creditors on issues concerning environmental liabilities, such as state and federal lender liability exemptions, environmental due diligence before foreclosure, and safe-harbor activities of lenders.

• Energy Plus

  • Advised an electric utility on complying with the Renewable Portfolio Standard and net metering regulations, and mitigating liability resulting from a power line fire.

  • Counseled an electric utility on legislative issues including the implications of, and revising, proposed legislation concerning greenhouse gas emissions performance standards, stranded cost recovery in retiring outdated generating facilities, and the development of solar energy systems to meet the Renewable Portfolio Standard.