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Karen Vincent focuses primarily on environmental litigation as well as environmental enforcement and regulatory compliance matters. She has experience practicing under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA), the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), the Clean Air Act (CAA), the Price-Anderson Act, and similar state environmental statutes. Karen also works on due diligence projects for clients and assessing corporation transactions for environmental liability. In addition, she maintains an active pro bono practice, including LGBTQ+ and disability rights impact litigation.

Karen graduated magna cum laude and Order of the Coif from the Georgetown University Law Center. While in law school, she served as an Executive Editor for The Georgetown Law Journal and a student attorney for the Environmental Law and Justice Clinic. Prior to law school, Karen worked for several years on environmental policy matters in Washington State.

Experience

  • Fortune 100 Company in CERCLA litigation seeking reimbursement of response costs for the remediation of a contaminated site in Western New York.
  • Secondment at Fortune 100 Company managing diverse portfolio of remediation sites.
  • Fortune 100 Company in compliance counseling related to potential presence of PFAS at remediation sites.
  • Manufacturing company in compliance counseling related to National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) under the Clean Air Act.
  • Fortune 100 Company in toxic tort lawsuits alleging violations of the Price-Anderson Act.

Perspectives

Two New Hazardous Substances: Key Impacts of Listing PFOA and PFOS Under CERCLA
Advisory
Superfund Liability for PFAS: EPA Designates Two PFAS Chemicals as Hazardous Substances
Environmental Edge: Climate Change & Regulatory Insights
Will EPA Be Designating Entire Categories of PFAS as CERCLA Hazardous Substances?
Environmental Edge: Climate Change & Regulatory Insights
Two New Hazardous Substances: The Impact of Listing PFOA and PFOS Under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (pdf)
The Journal of Federal Agency Action, Volume 1, Number 1
FTC Seeking Comments on Green Guides; May Seek to Convert to Binding Regulation
Environmental Edge: Climate Change & Regulatory Insights
More

Credentials

Education

  • J.D., Georgetown University Law Center, 2021, magna cum laude, Order of the Coif
  • B.A., Anthropology, Environmental Studies, Grinnell College, 2013, with honors

Admissions

  • District of Columbia
  • U.S. District Court, Southern District of Illinois

Activities

  • Regional Reporter, ABA Committee on Superfund and Cost Recovery
  • Member, National LGBTQ+ Bar Association
Overview