Jonathan Ettinger

Practice Areas

Jonathan Ettinger has a dynamic and varied practice assisting clients in a broad range of issues involving environmental claims and insurance recovery claims. His work includes everything from clean water and superfund to regulatory challenges, from settlement and mediation to trials and international arbitration, and everything in between.

Jonathan represents clients seeking to resolve or avoid disputes involving complex environmental claims and clients seeking coverage from insurance companies. He has litigated or arbitrated claims under nearly every U.S. environmental law (and many state analogs) including Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, CERCLA, Endangered Species Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, Toxic Substances Control Act, National Environmental Policy Act, and the Marine Mammal Protection Act. In addition to domestic litigation, he represents clients around the globe in international arbitrations involving environmental claims. In every case, he develops a strategy to maximize the client’s objective and, in so doing, always considers settlement opportunities, including mediation. Unlike many environmental lawyers, he actively tries cases in Court.

Jonathan’s practice is wide-ranging. He has:

-Represented clients seeking to recover, under federal and state Superfund statutes, the costs of remediating hazardous waste and also those from whom such costs are sought, either by private parties or governmental agencies.

-Represented governmental agencies, such as the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, the Boston Water and Sewer Commission, and the Massachusetts Development Finance Authority, defending against claims that they are violating the Clean Water Act, due to sewage and/or stormwater discharges.

-Represented a sovereign state in an international arbitration against a major oil company involving oil contamination in the Amazon Basin.

-Defended against claims from so-called “emerging contaminants” such as Per- and Poly-fluorinated Alkyl Substances (“PFAS”).

-Helped clients recover tens of millions of dollars from insurance companies that refused to pay.

-Successfully defended a city against a challenge to its regulation of an international oil pipeline.

-Counseled clients on hazardous waste remediation nationwide, including resolution of disputes involving more than a dozen sites through the use of professional mediators and judges in Alternative Dispute Resolution proceedings.

In addition to environmental and insurance recovery claims, Jonathan has also litigated cases involving breach of international bilateral investment treaties, breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duties, breach of covenants not to compete, legal malpractice, breach of warranty, negligence, fraud, unfair or deceptive trade practices.