Professional Qualifications

Mr. Magnus represents a wide variety of clients, from Fortune 500 companies to small family businesses, in all aspects of environmental and regulatory matters throughout California and Washington. This work includes litigation, agency negotiations, and administrative proceedings. He defends clients against claims arising under CERCLA, RCRA, California’s Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control and Carpenter-Presley-Tanner Hazardous Substances Acts, the Clean Water Act, and Washington’s Model Toxics Controls Act, in addition to claims arising under traditional tort theories.

Clients often seek Mr. Magnus’s assistance with directives and orders issued by California’s Regional Water Quality Boards and other local agencies, and, when necessary, to challenge these directives to the California State Water Resources Control Board. As a part of this work, Mr. Magnus negotiates language and cleanup requirements with regulatory agencies in California and Washington. He has also overseen bidding contests to identify and select contractors to preform efficient site investigations and remediation. Mr. Magnus possesses extensive experience negotiating cost-effective work scopes and cost sharing agreements for environmental investigations and remediation work at sites throughout California and Washington.

His work also includes extensive regulatory counseling. Mr. Magnus provides clients advice on a wide variety of environmental topics, from greenwash claims and recycling and waste management practices to compliance advice in connection with air district rules and CARB regulations. He regularly counsels clients attempting to do business in the City and County of San Francisco. Mr. Magnus also assists clients with storm water compliance and the defense of Clean Water Act citizen suits.

Mr. Magnus possesses wide-ranging civil litigation experience. In addition to environmental litigations, he has represented clients in construction defect, toxic-tort law, professional liability, inverse condemnation, personal injury, and wrongful death actions.

Prior to becoming an attorney, Mr. Magnus spent ten years in the insurance industry handling environmental and toxic-tort claims, primarily in the western United States. He is very familiar with insurance coverage issues that arise in the context of environmental claims.

During law school, Mr. Magnus served as the Managing Editor of the Golden Gate University Environmental Law Journal. His student note for the law journal, Lyon’s Roar, Then a Whimper: The Demise of Broad Arranger Liability In the Ninth Circuit has been cited serval times including appellate briefing before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and in Roger’s Environmental Law, a treatise on environmental issues.

Mr. Magnus is licensed to practice in California and Washington.

Education

J.D., Golden Gate University School of Law
B.A., Skidmore College

Bar Admissions

California
Washington