John Burnside’s practice involves environmental litigation, dispute resolution, and regulatory compliance with emphasis on matters integrating complex technical, factual, and legal issues. Representative topics Mr. Burnside has addressed include Superfund cost recovery and defense, air and water quality permitting and enforcement, environmental insurance coverage placement and claims, environmental forensics, toxic tort defense and contractual allocation of environmental liabilities.
In connection with his environmental practice, Mr. Burnside works closely with scientists and consultants in fields such as geochemistry, hydrogeology, and environmental engineering for evaluation of our clients’ strategic options and achievement of our client’s goals in dispute resolution and environmental compliance. Mr. Burnside has supervised development of expert testimony, including report preparation, electronic document management and all phases of discovery. He has managed the electronic discovery process in complex environmental cases and is familiar with database and trial presentation technology. With respect to environmental insurance matters, Mr. Burnside has assisted clients with evaluation, litigation, and resolution of multi-site environmental insurance claims and regularly advises clients in the purchase of environmental insurance policies, including in connection with commercial real estate transactions.
Mr. Burnside has counseled clients in the development and implementation of environmental remediation projects, with a particular emphasis on the hard rock mining industry. He also has addressed a variety of environmental regulatory permitting and compliance challenges, including air quality and climate change regulation, water quality protection, and solid waste treatment, storage, and disposal.
Prior to entering private practice, Mr. Burnside had the unique and invaluable experience serving as a law clerk to the Honorable Ruth V. McGregor on two different courts: the Arizona Supreme Court and the Arizona Court of Appeals. While attending law school, he was an articles editor for the Arizona State Law Journal and graduated magna cum laude, ranked second in his class. He was recognized by the state bar of Arizona for having achieved the second-highest score on the July 1997 bar exam.