Jeffrey Dintzer

Dintzer, an Alston & Bird partner specializing in environmental, land use and natural resources litigation, has more than 30 years' experience representing companies in the energy, manufacturing and defense industries.

Despite the coronavirus pandemic, he said in late August, "Our practice hasn't really missed a beat. By early June courts were figuring out how to deal with all this. We're really busy."

In Dintzer's practice area, it's best to take the long view. "Environmental litigation tends to have a life of its own. It's not uncommon to see cases go on for ten to 15 years. We can hope we'll be back to normalcy by the end of the year."

In April, a state appellate panel affirmed a major defense win for client Aera Energy LLC, a Bakersfield-based oil and gas production company jointly owned by Shell Oil Co. and ExxonMobil. It is one of the state's largest oil and natural gas producers. The issue was permits issued to Aera by the California Department of Conservation for more than 200 new wells in the South Belridge Oil Field in Kern County. Challenging the new wells were environmental groups, including the Center for Biological Diversity and the Sierra Club, that alleged the state had insufficiently complied with the California Environmental Quality Act in issuing the permits. After Dintzer prevailed in Kern County Superior Court, the plaintiffs appealed. Association of Irritated Residents v. California Department of Conservation, Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources, F078460 (5th DCA, filed Dec. 11, 2018).

The litigation put Dintzer at odds with the Department of Conservation. They differed over whether the department exercised discretion in issuing the permits or was merely complying with existing regulations and field rules. The appellate panel agreed with Dintzer that because discretion was not involved, the department's decision to issue the permits did not require a CEQA review.

"For future cases involving mature oil fields, it's a precedent-setting case," Dintzer said. "This was a big win to get. A lot of my clients in the oil and gas field were following it. It's one that really counts."

Dintzer also serves as lead counsel to construction services provider Five Point Holdings LLC, one of the defendants in a potential class action over the alleged failure by a remediation company to disclose the presence of radioactive substances at a former naval shipyard that is the site of San Francisco's largest development project. U.S. v. Tetra Tech EC Inc., 3:13-cv-03835 (N.D. Ca., filed Aug. 19, 2013).

His motion to dismiss Five Point from the case is set to be heard in late 2020. "We didn't cause any contamination," Dintzer said.

-- John Roemer