Former New York Governor George E. Pataki is heading up a new law practice specializing in helping clients address the ramifications of climate change.
As part of the New York-based law firm Chadbourne & Parke LLP, Pataki is joined in the practice by former commissioner of the New York Department of Environmental Conservation John P. Cahill. Both men joined the firm last year.
According to Chadbourne, the new practice will help clients develop new business opportunities, energy sources and technologies, and take creative approaches to climate change.
Chadbourne said the multi-disciplinary climate-change practice will draw on the experience of the firm’s transactional, insurance, regulatory, energy, environmental, litigation and public-policy attorneys, and includes expertise in market-based carbon cap-and-trade programs.
"We have assembled a practice team that spans seven disciplines and encompasses more than 60 attorneys," says Charles K. O’Neill, Chadbourne managing partner. "With the debate about global warming now over, what do we do about it and when, are the critical questions we are now helping clients address."
As public officials, Pataki and Cahill worked on several climate-change initiatives, including the adoption of the regional greenhouse gas initiative, implementation of the nation’s first green-building tax credit and programs to enhance the production and use of alternative energy like biodiesel, ethanol, fuel cells and clean coal.
Pataki is currently co-chairing the independent task force on global climate change, a project of the Council on Foreign Relations, and is focusing on climate-change issues as a member of the U.S. mission to the United Nations’ general assembly.
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