Bio

Ridgway M. Hall, Jr. has been practicing environmental law for over 40 years.  His work has included strategic counseling, litigation, mediation and alternative dispute resolution, compliance assurance, site remediation, commercial transactions and regulatory proceedings.  He is Vice Chair of the Chesapeake Legal Alliance, which has created a network of lawyers to handle cases on a pro bono basis relating to the protection and restoration of the Chesapeake Bay, its watershed and its natural resources.  For information on the Chesapeake Legal alliance, see www.chesapeakelegal.org.

Ridge graduated from Yale College, magna cum laude (1963) and Harvard Law School (1966), was a partner with Cummings & Lockwood in Stamford, Connecticut, then served at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency during 1975-77 as Associate General Counsel for Water.  He was a founding partner of the law firm of Crowell & Moring where he started the firm’s environmental law practice.  During his 31 years years at Crowell & Moring he was named one of the top lawyers in the environmental field by Best Lawyers In America, Chambers USA, Washington, D.C., Super Lawyers, and Euromoney’s Guide to the World’s Leading Environmental Lawyers.  He has been listed in The International Who’s Who Legal for environmental law for many years.

Since 1977 Ridge has handled a wide variety of environmental cases, with a focus on Superfund, Clean Water Act and toxic tort matters, for large and small companies in the manufacturing, mining, consumer products and construction industries, among others. He has tried jury and non-jury cases in federal and state courts. 

For over 20 years he assisted companies in the design and implementation of corporate environmental, health and safety auditing and compliance programs. He has worked extensively with companies in conducting environmental audits, planning for future growth, handling environmental aspects of acquisitions and other business transactions, and setting up training programs.

He is a member of the American College of Environmental Lawyers, a life member of the American Law Institute, a past officer of the Environmental Law Institute, and a former member of the Board of Environmental, Health and Safety Auditor Certifications Standards Board.

Representative Cases :

For four years, he was lead counsel on Crowell & Moring’s team which represented one of the nuclear reactor operating contractors at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation litigation. This consisted of five consolidated class actions, plus individual cases, in which the defense team won significant victories at the motion to dismiss and summary judgment stage before they persuaded the U.S.Department of Energy to take over the defense.

He was lead counsel for the plaintiff City of Delray Beach, Florida, in a groundwater contamination case which, after a four-week jury trial, produced a verdict for the City of $8.7 million, covering past and expected future cleanup costs.

In 1998 he won a three-week jury trial of a False Claims Act case involving alleged Clean Water Act violations, which was affirmed by the Sixth Circuit.

During 2000-04, Ridge served as court-appointed Monitor to oversee the design and implementation of a nationwide Environmental Management System by BP Amoco at all of its oil exploration, drilling and production facilities, on-shore and off-shore.

For 5 years he served as a facilitator in a nationwide civil enforcement case brought by EPA and the Justice Department against a large pipe manufacturer, including 23 facilities and 6 different federal environmental laws and their state counterparts.  This has resulted in a global settlement agreement between the parties, embodied in a federal consent decree.

He served as mediator/arbitrator in a dispute between the purchaser and seller of a large paper mill involving significant Clean Air Act notices of violation, including remedial measures, costs and penalties.

More recently he has worked with state regulators and environmental groups to provide incentives for farmers to implement best management practices that both reduce nutrient pollution and mitigate the effects of climate change.

Speaking and Teaching :

Ridge has spoken widely on all aspects of environmental law, regulation and litigation on programs sponsored by the American Bar Association, the International Bar Association, the American Law Institute, Government Institutes, Federal Publications, Executive Enterprises, the Environmental Law Institute, the American College of Environmental Lawyers, and numerous industry and environmental groups, trade associations and other organizations.

From 1978 through 1996 he and Tom Truitt taught the popular 3-day intensive course on “Practical Environmental Law” for Federal Publications twice a year. For many years he also taught Federal Publications courses on “Environmental Auditing and Compliance Assurance” and “Hazardous Waste Litigation and Dispute Resolution”.  For nearly 20 years he and his colleagues at Crowell & Moring taught the Government Institutes intensive courses on the Superfund law and the Hazardous Waste regulatory program.  For a decade and a half, through 2008, he co-chaired the ALI-ABA Conference on Hazardous Substances, Site Remediation and Enforcement. More recently he has been writing and speaking on the restoration of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed under the Clean Water Act.

 To read selected articles click here.

For a complete list of publications click here.

Miscellaneous 

He is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia and numerous federal courts around the country.

He is a former World Champion in Blue Jay class sailboats, and a finalist in the U.S. Olympic Trials sailing in the Finn Class.