AIR REGULATIONS

Smiland & Khachigian represents businesses, property owners and entrepreneurs in private and public legal matters, with a particular emphasis on disputes relating to air quality issues, water rights and land use matters. The firm’s practice includes counseling clients in local, state and federal government relations, including state and federal regulatory and legislative arenas. Its air practice is longstanding and includes significant victories.

The firm’s lawyers have represented numerous Southern California industrial clients in air quality matters. Members of the firm offer compliance counseling and representation for negotiating regulatory matters and administrative hearings. Dozens of clients have engaged the firm to litigate against the South Coast Air Quality Management District and the Environmental Protection Agency.

Among the firm’s successes are judgments that invalidated air quality regulations because the government failed to analyze properly the environmental consequences of the regulations, judgments that benefited significantly California’s paint industry. Its strong presence in air quality litigation resulted in winning three significant judgments, one of which was affirmed in a landmark appellate decision. The firm’s lawyers represented a group of twenty metal companies, the Alliance of Small Emitters/Metals Industry, in administrative proceedings before the South Coast Air Quality Management District regarding the landmark RECLAIM program, and challenged parts of that program on behalf of the Alliance and other entities in Alliance of Small Emitters/Metals Industry v. SCAQMD, 60 Cal.App.4th 55 (1997). The firm also represented thirteen manufacturers, three contractors and six dealers in litigation before the Air Resources Board and six air districts challenging rules limiting organic compound content of various paints. In that litigation, a California Court of Appeal upheld the rights of the entities to sue all of the defendants in one case. Three courts struck down the rules in three separate trials on CEQA grounds and a Court of Appeal upheld the challenges in Dunn Edwards Corp. v. BAAQMD, 9 Cal.App.4th 644 (1992). The firm is currently representing a group of paint manufacturers challenging EPA's 1995 study and listing of the volatile organic compound emissions from consumer and commercial products and its 1998 architectural coatings rule, in a series of cases including Allied Local and Regional Manufacturers v. EPA (D.C. Cir. 1998).

The firm’s lawyers frequently represent clients before the South Coast Air Quality Management District Hearing Board and regularly negotiate notices of violation and other regulatory matters with the district’s prosecutors. Members have also represented clients before the San Joaquin Valley Unified Air Pollution Control District, the Ventura County Air Pollution Control District and the Santa Barbara County Air Pollution Control District. A senior member of the firm was a Governor’s appointee to the Governing Board of the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

The law firm’s members believe that today’s commercial environment requires that American businesses and entrepreneurs be prepared to confront growing challenges and increasingly aggressive adversaries. Smiland & Khachigian is best known for providing its clients the efficient, creative and aggressive counsel necessary to be competitive in their businesses.

REPRESENTATIVE CLIENTS: Alliance of Small Emitters/Metals Industry, Allied Local and Regional Manufacturers, Boston Ranch Company, Cadillac Fairview Corporation, Casmalia De Minimis Group, Dunn-Edwards Corporation, Environmental Legislative & Regulatory Advocacy Program of the California Paint & Coatings Industry Alliance ("ELRAP"), Harbor Gateway Commercial Property Owners Association ("HGCPOA"), Henry Company, International Rectifier, J.G. Boswell Company, Nissan North America, Inc., Pacifica Capital Group LLC, Pilibos Bros., Prentiss Copley Investment Group, Prentiss Properties Limited, SBC Communications, Inc., Shultz Steel Company, Smiland Paint Company, State Chemical Manufacturing Company, Sumner Peck Ranch, Inc., SunPacific Corporation, Triangle Coatings, and U.S. Trust Company of California