Joseph D. Picciotti
Member

Mr. Picciotti is a member of the firm and leader of the Environmental Practice Group.  He also serves on the Energy and the Telecommunications and Media Industry Teams.  He focuses his legal practice on environmental and commercial matters, including litigation.  Mr. Picciotti has substantial experience representing companies and municipalities in hazardous waste site clean up actions and prosecuting environmental claims on behalf of private parties and municipalities.

Selected as one of the Best Lawyers in America and named to the upstate New York edition of New York Super Lawyers, Mr. Picciotti’s environmental practice includes counseling corporations on complying with federal and state requirements concerning storing, maintaining, and handling hazardous substances and hazardous wastes and compliance with discharge requirements under New York and Federal Law including the Clean Water Act and New York State’s Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Program.  He conducts environmental due diligence investigations pursuant to corporate transactions.  He also assists companies in auditing their operations for such transactions, and in preparation for governmental audits and investigations.  He also counsels clients concerning issues arising under the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) including counseling clients on land use and zoning issues.  He has had extensive experience in litigating such matters, as well as general trial and appellate work before state and federal courts.

Mr. Picciotti also has considerable experience in counseling clients concerning insurance coverage issues and has represented policy holders and carriers in insurance coverage litigation.

Representative cases include:

• Lead counsel in navigation law case. After targeted discovery obtained a voluntary dismissal of claims on behalf of two municipal clients.  Ellis v. The State of New York, New York Department of Transportation, The Town of Leicester, The Village of Leicester, Exxon Mobil Corporation, Neil E. Harris, Jr. and Marjorie C. Harris, William R. Roffe as executor of the Estate of Marion Roffe, (NYS Supreme Court, Livingston County) Index No. 931-2004.
• Lead counsel in Superfund litigation targeting a municipal client which was disposed of on a favorable basis. Macedon Land Development, Inc. v. The Town of Macedon, Village of Macedon, Exxon Mobil Corporation, Town of Walworth and Charles W. Kemp., Sr. (United State District Court for the Western District of New York) Civil Action No. 04-CV-6551 T.
• Lead counsel for defendants in navigation law matter which was resolved on a favorable basis. Paul L. Aschenbrenner and Beverly A. Aschenbrenner v Keith R. Fields and TB&P Express, Inc. (NYS Supreme Court) County of Erie, Index No. I2003-0826.
• Counsel for Cayuga and Seneca Counties in opposition to the application by the Cayuga Indian Nation seeking placement of alleged Indian Nation land into trust, represented the counties against the trust application in administrative proceedings involving the National Environmental Policy Act before the US Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs which denied the Cayuga Indian Nation’s Land into trust application. December, 2011.
• Lead counsel in a zoning and commercial matter involving an advertising firm. Town of Macedon v. Hsarman. Achieved summary judgment dismissing claims seeking to remove offsite advertising signs along a federally funded roadway based on federal and state law. 17 Misc.3d 417 (N.Y. Sup. 2007).
• Lead counsel for a developer in a litigation in which he successfully defended claims for violations of the Clean Water Act, including winning dismissal of the claims in Federal District Court which was affirmed by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals
• Lead counsel for a municipality in a series of lawsuits challenging its authority to change its municipal water service provider.  Successfully defended over one half dozen suits mounting such challenges including suits filed in state and federal court.
• Lead counsel for a municipality that was successful in seeking a permanent injunction of an operation which violated local zoning ordinance provisions.

Mr. Picciotti has written several articles on insurance coverage and environmental issues for environmental publications. Mr. Picciotti has also been a speaker and presenter on a broad range of environmental issues, including his latest engagement where he presented on Clean Water Act issues at the American Bar Association’s Annual Toxic Tort and Environmental seminar in April 2008 in Phoenix, Arizona.