Thomas E. Starnes
Counsel
tstarnes@andrewskurth.com

1350 I Street, NW
Suite 1100
Washington D.C. 20005
P: 202.662.2767
F: 202.662.2739

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Tom enjoys a national practice in environmental litigation.  Representing clients primarily in the chemical and energy industries, Tom has served as lead counsel in the defense of multi-million dollar cost-recovery and enforcement actions brought by federal and state regulators under CERCLA, RCRA and analogous state statutes.  In addition, for clients who have made (often massive) expenditures to investigate or remediate environmental contamination, Tom has been retained to prosecute cost-recovery claims to recoup a fair share of those costs from other potentially responsible parties.

Tom’s representations focus on high-stakes, “mega-site” environmental litigation, where the alleged contamination may spread across thousands of acres, or even hundreds of square miles, such as in cases involving the sediments of heavily industrialized rivers and bays.  Ongoing and recent matters include:

• Defending affiliated companies against statutory and common law claims brought by state government to recover cleanup costs, property damage and economic loss allegedly incurred as a result of dioxin contamination in the Passaic River and Newark Bay.
• Prosecuting a 20-party cost recovery action—while simultaneously defending a state enforcement action—involving a client’s investigation and remediation of a 1,200-acre former chemical plant site along Lake Erie. 
• Representing one of 10 defendants—and joining in the prosecution of multiple third party claims—to allocate $250 million in EPA-incurred response costs at a Superfund site near the Houston Ship Channel.

Over the years, Tom has also developed a challenging and rewarding practice representing religious institutions in a wide range of litigation and counseling matters.  Tom has been hired as counsel to defend claims asserted against—and especially to enforce the property rights of—some of the country’s largest and most established religious denominations, including The United Methodist Church; the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church and the African Methodist Episcopal Church.  He has been retained as counsel on litigation matters by the General Council on Finance and Administration of The United Methodist Church; on personnel issues by the General Board of Church and Society of The United Methodist Church; and he currently is honored to serve as Chancellor of the Baltimore-Washington Conference of The United Methodist Church.

Professional / Civic Affiliations

Member

• The District of Columbia Bar Association
• General Council of Finance and Administration of The United Methodist Church, Committee on Legal Responsibilities (1992-2000)

Practice Areas

• Environmental
• Litigation

Education

• JD, 1983, honors, George Washington University Law School
• BA, 1980, high distinction, University of Maine

Admitted

• District of Columbia, 1983
  District of Columbia Court of Appeals
  US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
  US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
  US District Court for the District of Columbia