Leas, Christine

Author Description

Christine Leas, Principal at Sive Paget & Riesel, PC (New York, NY), has over 25 years of experience practicing environmental law. She specializes in environmental regulatory compliance and transactional matters, counseling clients on the environmental aspects of mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures. Christine has worked on many aspects of brownfield redevelopment of properties under the New York State Brownfield Cleanup Program (and its predecessor Voluntary Cleanup Program) and Superfund sites (CERCLA and its state counterparts). She has represented private developers and public entities in connection with all phases of brownfield redevelopment — due diligence investigation, structuring and negotiating property acquisition/divestiture transactions, procurement and oversight of environmental consulting and remediation services, liability transfers, environmental insurance and regulatory permitting and compliance. Christine has also worked with corporate and financial institution clients on environmental aspects of mergers and acquisitions involving many domestic and international properties. Christine received her BA with a certificate in environmental studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (in the days before degree programs were offered in environmental studies), and her JD from the University of California, Hastings College of Law in San Francisco. She’s admitted to practice in New York, Connecticut and California.

Authored Reports

Groundwater & the Clean Water Act: Murky Waters — Are Indirect Discharges to Groundwater Regulated Under the CWA? Hawai’i Wildlife Fund, et al. v. County of Maui