James F. Thompson

Jamie practices environmental and energy law on a national basis.  He represents oil and gas companies in complex litigation, arbitration and allocation proceedings. He also advises corporate clients and their in-house counsel on a wide range of environmental compliance and permitting issues, including spill reporting and disclosure, permitting and permit compliance, remediation, financial assurance, closure and post-closure care, and worker health and safety.

Among other things, he helps clients navigate through the environmental approval process for large-scale development and remediation projects. He has negotiated cleanup cost-cap and property transfer insurance coverage and created innovative contracting solutions to enable development projects and commercial transactions to succeed. He regularly addresses issues under a host of federal and state environmental laws, including the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the Endangered Species Act (ESA), the Clean Water Act (CWA), the Oil Pollution Act (OPA), the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), and the Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA). In addition, he assists companies in obtaining insurance recovery for environmental liabilities and financial benefits from Brownfields initiative programs. He has supervised environmental facility audits, responded to governmental notices of violation and penalty assessments, and helped formalize corporate environmental policies and procedures.

Jamie has been recognized in Best Lawyers in America and The Best Lawyers in Kansas City for his environmental litigation work. He is also a frequent lecturer on environmental and real property issues. He was an instructor for a course on the regulatory framework of environmental law at the University of California, Los Angeles. Before joining Shook, Jamie practiced environmental law at Lathrop & Gage in Kansas City, Missouri, and Parker, Milliken, Clark, O’Hara & Samuelian in Los Angeles, California.

Jamie’s recent projects and cases include:

• achieving dismissal of a national defense contractor from a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Government for recovery of more than $50 million in remediation expenses allegedly resulting from operations of a 46-acre naval weapons missile production facility in Massachusetts;
• assisting an oil refining company in seeking cost recovery under government contracts for environmental expenses related to the production of aviation fuel during World War II;
• successfully defending a multinational energy company in a lawsuit filed by the U.S. government to recover nearly $100 million in costs of remediating perchlorate contamination at a former defense production plant in Texas; 
• obtaining complete victory for a major oil company in a binding arbitration concerning a Superfund (CERCLA) site in Massachusetts with estimated cleanup costs exceeding $25 million and securing zero share for all future costs and true-up refund for client of nearly $1 million in past costs;
• managing and coordinating the work of several attorneys and paralegals in complex, multimillion dollar litigation involving insurance coverage for environmental liabilities at more than 300 waste disposal sites across the country; 
• developing an interactive, online platform to assist an international pipeline company in ensuring compliance with complex engineering licensing laws in 40 states for large-scale development projects that cross multiple state lines;
• securing Brownfields grant money and insurance coverage for a $17 million business park development and corporate campus of a national company;
• helping effectuate environmental liability transfers in connection with a multi-billion dollar corporate transaction;
• representing major oil companies in Superfund cases in several states across the nation, including sites in Missouri, Kansas, Illinois, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Montana, New York, New Mexico, Nevada, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and California.