John F. Parker

John Parker, vice chair of Goldberg Segalla’s Environmental Practice Group, defends clients across the country in complex environmental and toxic tort litigation, and advises them on environmental regulatory and compliance matters. He counsels clients on the full spectrum of state and federal regulations governing environmental disputes and regulatory actions, including the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and others. John focuses a significant portion of his practice on litigating civil and administrative environmental matters such as cost recovery actions, citizen suits, and enforcement proceedings relating to site contaminations, spills, and remediation involving underground storage tanks, PCBs, and the fuel additive MTBE. He also provides risk management, litigation avoidance, and other strategic counsel on environmental compliance and related issues.

John regularly handles matters pertaining to toxic exposures, lead paint poisoning, mold, asbestos, beryllium, repetitive stress injury, and more. He also litigates matters involving contamination and exposure to chemicals and substances such as PFAS, 1,4-Dioxane, TCE, and benzene. John’s finely honed legal counsel offers clients remarkable insight into how best to defend complex, high-exposure liability claims. He also acts as counsel for owners, construction managers, contractors, subcontractors, and architects and engineers on large-scale construction projects and advises on contractual and insurance matters and issues pertaining to labor law.

In addition, John has more than 25 years’ experience serving the legal needs and defending the interests of product manufacturers, general contractors, and others on issues of liability and damages in state and federal courts around the country. His varied practice includes work in the pharmaceutical arena, where he assists major pharmaceutical companies and medical device manufacturers in product liability actions, asset purchase agreements/joint development agreements, and the interpretation of FDA regulatory provisions. He also defends premises liability and security-related matters on behalf of hoteliers and restaurant chains, and represents local and national motor carriers/truck insurers in matters involving personal injury and wrongful death..

John regularly writes and lectures on emerging environmental issues impacting the regulated industry and serves as co-editor of Goldberg Segalla's Environmental Law Monitor, the firm’s weekly environmental blog publication.

Representative Matters

• Defending a Fortune 500 company — whose subsidiary designed and manufactured the USTs, piping, and leak detection system under a large commercial shopping center — in a petroleum discharge matter involving damage to the environment, real property, and the surrounding community
• Defending a regional remediation company in a claim involving New York Navigation Law cause of action pertaining to exacerbation of oil contamination during cleanup and remedial operations
• Defending a gasoline station/property owner against allegations of groundwater contamination in New York municipality's water supply
• Representing numerous property owners/managers, product manufacturers/distributors, and remediation companies in actions concerning lead exposure to children, adults, and surrounding neighborhoods
• Acting as counsel to environmental testing professionals at Nassau Coliseum in matters involving alleged airborne chemical exposure
• Represent multinational chemical company in a train derailment investigation in Wisconsin wherein the local water supply was threatened
• Represent the interests of a well-drilling company in Oklahoma involving a pipeline leak into a nearby water source
• Representing the manufacturer of machines involved in dry cleaning in a matter involving allegations of defective design pertaining to causal link between exposure to dry-cleaning solvent PERC and alleged disease
• Acting as counsel for an international engineering and environmental consulting firm facing multi-million dollar exposure due to a building collapse
• Acting as national coordinating counsel responsible for the strategy and oversight of hundreds of matters throughout the country concerning mass tort, product liability, and environmental claims
• Acting as counsel for a component provider of an allegedly defective boiler, which purportedly caused a carbon monoxide leak that resulted in the wrongful deaths of three individuals
• Defending an electrical contractor in a dispute arising from the explosion of a high-voltage cable system at a power generation facility in Connecticut, which resulted in property damages; claims included negligence, breach of contract, breach of warranty, and the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act
• Coordinating product litigation for a heavy machinery manufacturer
• Representing a large construction entity with city-wide contracts that routinely faces a high volume of labor law and premises liability exposure
• Defending a pharmaceutical company and its subsidiary in federal litigation and arbitration against claims of breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, fraudulent misrepresentation, and equitable claims arising out of a joint venture relationship. After a merger between the pharmaceutical company and its newly owned subsidiary, the plaintiff company asserted claims for multiple millions of dollars in exposure based on the acquisition of the subsidiary and purported ownership interest in a drug developed by the joint venture
• Representing a pharmaceutical company in qui tam action under the False Claims Act, the Medicare and Medicaid Patient Protection Act, anti-kickback statutes, and various state laws
• Representing a pharmaceutical company in an action against a former employee and a competing manufacturer for theft of trade secrets, computer fraud, breach of contract, and breach of fiduciary duty