K&L Gates Welcomes Four-Lawyer Environmental and Mass Tort Litigation, Regulatory Team in Newark Office

Newark - Global law firm K&L Gates LLP has added a team of four lawyers focused on environmental litigation and regulation and mass tort litigation in its Newark office. Joseph F. Lagrotteria, Dorothy Mello Laguzza, Gary M. Sapir, and Adam G. Husik all join the firm from LeClairRyan, where Lagrotteria served as head of the environmental practice area.

“We are thrilled to welcome Joe and his team to K&L Gates,” stated Anthony P. La Rocco, managing partner of K&L Gates’ Newark office. “Their impressive experience in environmental litigation and regulation and other areas of litigation nicely complements our firm’s strong practices, and their addition will benefit current and future clients not only in New Jersey but across our expansive global platform.”

Lagrotteria represents public and private companies—primarily in the chemical and manufacturing sectors—in state, federal, and appellate courts across the United States on a variety of environmental litigation and regulatory matters. He also has extensive experience in commercial, antitrust, and products liability litigation, and frequently serves as an arbitrator and mediator appointed by the United States District Court for New Jersey.

Laguzza counsels clients on state and federal environmental issues arising from real estate and corporate transactions, including areas such as site remediation, natural resource damages, brownfields development, and regulatory matters. She also advises on environmental litigation matters, including state and federal cost recovery claims.

Sapir focuses his practice on toxic tort, mass tort, and products liability litigation in New Jersey and New York state and federal courts, also representing clients on rail, bus, and other transportation litigation matters.

Husik advises clients on large, ongoing environmental remediation projects and other state and federal environmental issues connected to real estate and other transactions, as well as in class action and multidistrict litigation and other complex matters.

“We are delighted to have the opportunity to bring on a quality team of lawyers with quality practices and clients led by Joe Lagrotteria,” said K&L Gates Global Managing Partner Jim Segerdahl. “Joe and his work have been well known to the firm for a number of years, and we look forward to integrating Joe and his team into the K&L Gates platform, where we believe their practice will grow and thrive.”

With lawyers in the United States, European Union, and Asia, K&L Gates’ environment, land and natural resource practice helps clients to successfully navigate the maze of regulatory requirements and maintain good relations with regulatory agencies and other publics, anticipate and avoid problems, and, when necessary, litigate matters that cannot otherwise be resolved. The practice assists clients from around the world and from nearly every major industry, ranging in size from small, single-location manufacturers or small local governments to global Fortune 50 companies and major metropolitan service districts.

After years of representing multiple clients in thousands of cases and nearly every state, K&L Gates’ mass and complex tort litigation group is one of the most highly experienced, and successful, national teams in the United States, with lawyers not only in the courthouses every day, but also working with clients to develop legal strategies that can minimize the risk of trial while creating opportunities to resolve claims reasonably and expeditiously and to achieve their goals whether they have ten claims or tens of thousands of claims.