Stephen E. O’Day
Stephen E. O’Day is the partner in charge of the Environmental Law Section and the Sustainability Practice Group at Smith, Gambrell & Russell, LLP.
Mr. O’Day has been heavily involved in environmental litigation, consultation and negotiations during his more than 29 years of practice. He has advised clients in connection with the full range of environmental issues, including National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits and Clean Water Act compliance, Clean Air Act permits and compliance, Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act permitting and compliance, Toxic Substances Control Act compliance, right to know legislation under OSHA and the Superfund Amendment and Reauthorization Act, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act permitting and compliance including solid and hazardous waste treatment, disposal and cleanups, Superfund cleanups, toxic tort claims, water law and other environmental matters. He has handled administrative proceedings on state and federal levels in connection with issues ranging from usage of real property to compliance with federal and state environmental laws. He has represented clients in litigation involving environmental matters such as toxic tort litigation, nuisance litigation, hazardous waste cleanups, including sites both on and off the NPL in several areas of the country, clean water act citizen suits and compliance litigation, facilities compliance with the Resource, Conservation and Recovery Act, mold litigation, and landfill issues. Finally, he has assisted clients in environmental issues in real property acquisition and development and the acquisition and sale of operating manufacturing entities. Mr. O’Day also is a frequent speaker at numerous seminars concerning sustainability, environmental liability and compliance, and risk management. Mr. O’Day has achieved recent trial and appellate court victories in mold, Clean Water Act, solid waste (landfill) and wastewater land application litigation, including two state Supreme Court cases of first impression.
Mr. O’Day leads the Sustainability Practice Group at SGR. The Group provides focused legal advice and representation to companies and entities regarding sustainability intitiatives, business issues, planning and litigation.
He studied Civil Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, and earned a B.A. degree, summa cum laude, in political science from Furman University in 1976. He received his J.D. degree, cum laude, from Harvard Law School in 1979. While at Harvard, Mr. O’Day served as Chairman of the Harvard Environmental Law Society.
Mr. O’Day has been named as a “Georgia Super Lawyer” in environmental law since the inception of that list, by Atlanta Magazine and Law & Politics Media, Inc. He has also been named by Chambers USA as one of “America’s Leading Lawyers for Business” in environmental law, again since the inception of that publication, and as a Best Environmental Lawyer in Corporate Counsel magazine. He has been awarded one of the Best Lawyers in America in Environmental Law. Mr. O’Day recently was given the Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper’s highest honor, its River Guardian award, for years of community service in protecting the river providing Metropolitan Atlanta’s water supply, and also received the James S. Dockery, Jr., Southern Environmental Leadership Award from the Southern Environmental Law Center.
Mr. O’Day served as Chairman of the Environmental Advisory Council for Georgia’s Lieutenant Governor for eight years and on an advisory committee to the Georgia Pollution Prevention Assistance Division and the Governor’s Rivercare 2000 Task Force. He also served on the State of Georgia’s Solid Waste Planning Task Force and on the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce’s Water Quality Task Force and as Chairman of the Solid Waste Task Force. He led the Environmental Collaborative of the Atlanta Regional Commission’s award-winning Vision 2020 long term planning effort. He was also instrumental in a multi-party collaborative effort to craft Georgia’s General NPDES permit for storm water discharges from construction activities. Mr. O’Day currently serves on the Board of Trustees for the Southern Environmental Law Center and the Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper and is a member of Leadership Atlanta. He is also a Senior Litigation Counsel for the Southern Environmental Law Center and teaches environmental law as a part-time instructor at Georgia Tech.
Mr. O’Day has served as Vice Chairman of the Environmental Law Section of the Georgia Bar. He is active in the Litigation, Environment, Energy and Resources, and Tort Trial & Insurance Practice Sections of the American Bar Association.
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