Robert P. Doty

Robert is a leading real estate redevelopment attorney who provides strategy and counsel to a wide variety of clients dealing with contaminated site remediation and brownfield redevelopment challenges, including transactional due diligence, regulatory proceedings, and related litigation. He has worked on hundreds of contaminated sites, including industrial plants, landfills, rail yards, bulk terminals, closed military facilities, timber mills, dry cleaners, commercial nurseries, schools, and service stations.

Banking Background Benefits Transactional Clients

Property owners, developers, financial institutions, government agencies, and manufacturers rely on Robert for his ability to guide them through due diligence reviews, acquisition/disposition negotiations, regulatory and entitlement approvals, and insurance and financial underwriting. Robert's commercial banking background provides a real-world business perspective that complements his legal expertise. 

Effective Solutions In Complex California Litigation

On the litigation side of his practice, Robert has successfully litigated environmental cost recovery claims worth hundreds of millions of dollars in federal and state courts, including bench and jury trials as well as appeals. He has also successfully litigated environmental tort claims, Clean Water Act citizen suits, contract claims, eminent domain matters, and disputes arising out of California’s redevelopment statutes.

On behalf of real estate industry clients from entrepreneurs to institutions, provide advice and counsel on transactional due diligence, voluntary cleanup agreements, prospective purchaser agreements, CLRRA agreements, regulatory enforcement proceedings, insurance underwriting, and contract drafting. 

On behalf of a Silicon Valley landowner, and to facilitate redevelopment of an industrial site into market and affordable housing units, obtained regulatory approvals and settlements with Fortune Global 50/Fortune 300 entities for a combined soil, soil gas, and groundwater remediation program estimated to cost in excess of $40 million. The settlement also provides more than $10 million of lost income compensation.

On behalf of a landowner facing a $100 million cleanup order at a DNAPL-impacted site, conducted a four-week bench trial against the holdout defendant (trial decision pending).  Negotiated, and obtained pre-trial court approval for a $40 million settlement to fund the initial phases of the cleanup. Conducted extensive foreign discovery and motion practice to establish jurisdiction over the UK-based holdout defendant and defeated that entity’s motion for summary adjudication of complex successor liability issues.         

On behalf of a publicly traded global REIT, negotiated a confidential settlement with the Environmental Protection Agency and the parties primarily responsible for a miles-long groundwater plume at a Southern California Superfund site where remediation costs are estimated to exceed $250 million. Pre-settlement litigation involved extensive motion practice, a Ninth Circuit appeal, and petitions for certiorari. 

​On behalf of a privately held industrial property owner, negotiating PCB remediation and cost allocation issues with the Environmental Protection Agency, Regional Water Quality Control Board, and multiple historic polluters and corporate successors. The remediation involves a storm water system and potential impacts to San Francisco Bay. 

On behalf of an affordable housing developer, ongoing litigating over a sub-surface condemnation action with damages preliminarily estimated at $10 to $50 million. 

On behalf of a land-owning public entity, negotiating regulatory approvals with county- and state-level oversight entities while litigating the client’s quiet title claims against adjacent property owners who have asserted toxic tort claims arising from the client’s involvement with a closed landfill.      

On behalf of privately held property management entities, orchestrated regulatory enforcement proceedings against two global energy companies leading to a settlement pursuant to which one will excavate and off-haul approximately 40,000 cubic yards of petroleum-impacted soil when the clients redevelop their sites.  The other energy company is currently negotiating a sampling and remediation program to resolve chlorinated solvent impacts at its portion of the site.

On behalf of a municipality, used federal court CERCLA claims and simultaneous state court eminent domain proceedings, including a five-week jury trial and successful appellate litigation, to obtain title to real property and settlements in excess of $10 million from two multi-national corporations and other parties. The state appellate ruling validated the client's integration of eminent domain and CERCLA proceedings. The CERCLA litigation resolved when the municipality established by summary adjudication that its management of waterfront areas, development of road and sewer infrastructure, and land reclamation activities had not contaminated the historic shoreline of San Francisco Bay.

On behalf of a different municipality, simultaneously prosecuted and defended cost allocation and related insurance coverage claims arising from hydrocarbon and PCE contamination at a former bulk chemical distribution facility proposed for redevelopment into high density, market rate housing adjacent to San Francisco Bay. 

On behalf of a national operator of convenience stores and an electric power generator, defended and settled claims alleging strict liability, negligence, nuisance, and trespass brought by water system operators over MTBE contamination.

On behalf of a privately held Fortune 100 scale wood and paper products manufacturer, defended a subsidiary in a multi-million dollar enforcement/penalty proceeding initiated under California's Hazardous Waste Control Law.

On behalf of a municipal client, obtained a trial verdict in excess of $3 million and settlements in excess of $20 million in multi-party litigation arising from environmental cleanup work at the second phase of an award-winning urban redevelopment project. The matter required concurrent litigation of common law and eminent domain claims, in state court, and federal court litigation culminating in City of Emeryville v. Robinson, 621 F. 3d 1251, the seminal case clarifying the interplay of CERCLA and California's good faith settlement mechanism.

On behalf of an entrepreneur/land developer, obtained a settlement in excess of $10 million from two governmental entities in connection with cleanup costs and related delay damages at a 300-acre, multiphase residential development impacted by historic burn dump/disposal operations and mismanagement of the cleanup process.

On behalf of a Northern California port authority, obtained a settlement in a CEQA action challenging a port expansion project.

Honors & Recognitions

Team Member, Chambers USA Guide Environmental Practice Group Ranking, 2019-2024

Best Lawyers, Environmental Law, 2013-2025

AV Preeminent Attorney, Martindale Hubbell, 2001-2017

Northern California Super Lawyers, 2010-2023

Who's Who in American Law, 18th Edition, 2014-2015

Top Attorneys In Northern California, San Francisco Magazine, 2015 

Leading Lawyer, Real Estate/Northern California, The Legal 500, 2008

Professional Affiliations

Urban Land Institute (ULI), Redevelopment and Reuse Council, Founding/Current Member

California Bar Association, Environmental Law Section Executive Committee

California Association for Local economic Development, Legislative Affairs and Brownfield and Land Revitalization Committees, 2014-Present

California Redevelopment Association, Brownfields, Legal Issues, and Sustainability Committees, 1997-2012

Center for Creative Land Recycling Training Program, Faculty Member, 2000-2008

Editor in Chief, Ecology Law Quarterly, 1989-1990