SERVICES

LITIGATION SUPPORT Environmental A major law firm engaged Winthrop to help with the defense of a corporate client charged with groundwater pollution. To determine what damage had been done in the region during the time period in question, it was necessary to establish what the baseline level of pollution had been at the start. In over a year, paralegals had been unable to organize their findings into a meaningful interpretation. A Winthrop specialist in the history of environmental technology took the law firm’s materials and, by combining them with original research gleaned from hard-to-find public documents and newspapers, produced a comprehensive 100-year history on ground water pollution for the region. The report included a survey of industrialization, waste disposal techniques, and previous water quality problems, which were found to be due to a variety of sources. By emphasizing the complexity and indeterminacy of problems that had evolved over time, it was possible to expose the plaintiffs' representations as overly simplistic. The client won a judgment on appeal.