Catherine is the CEO and founder of EGC, a California law firm, and EPR Group Consulting Inc., a national consulting firm based in Virginia. After over thirty years of experience with a broad range of environmental compliance, permitting, transactional, administrative, litigation, and enforcement matters, Catherine's focus at EGC is on emerging EPR packaging programs and truth in labeling laws and mergers and acquisitions - supplemented with her long established practice in the areas of remediation projects, vapor intrusion, transactions and development projects, and Proposition 65. EPR Group Consulting offers multi-disciplinary consulting services about EPR packaging and paper programs on a nation-wide basis. 

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Catherine represents a broad range of clients and industries, including manufacturing facilities, food and beverage companies, consumer products, affordable housing developers, public agencies, the transportation industry, hospitality, leaders in the commercial real estate and multi-family housing industry, a B corporation, start-up companies, and family-owned businesses.

 

Catherine has represented Essex Property Trust, Inc., an S&P 500 publicly-traded REIT in the multi-family homes industry for over twenty-five years and has represented several of her other current clients for over a decade or more, including the Port of Oakland, the Oakland Housing Authority (the largest providers of affordable housing in Oakland) - and Summit Hill Foods, a flavor and ingredients company selling to both retail consumers and business-to-business foodservice and industrial customers. Catherine also serves as Environmental Counsel to the law firm of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, supporting their M&A practice.

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Catherine handled the landmark case, EHA v. Sream, Inc., 83 Cal. App. 5th 721 (2022), in which the appellate court affirmed the trial court decision (also handled by EGC) in favor of EGC's client, Sream, Inc., holding that no Proposition 65 warning was required because only direct exposures require warnings under Proposition 65. The Sream case was widely covered in the media, including the San Francisco Chronicle and heralded as a turning point in Proposition 65 litigation.

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From 2014 to 2016, Catherine managed a stormwater litigation matter in federal court for a private marine terminal, resulting in a successful partial summary judgment affirming as a matter of first impression her client's interpretation of the scope of the general stormwater permit as it applies to transportation facilities.

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Catherine also handled the ground-breaking case of U.S. v. Chapman, 146 F.3d 1166, 1169 (9th Cir. 1998), which for the first time established a limit on U.S. EPA's ability to recover its attorneys' fees in CERCLA cost-recovery actions. The Ninth Circuit adopted Catherine's novel argument that the U.S. EPA should be governed by the same standard applicable to private plaintiffs seeking recovery of fees under various federal statutes. Chapman has been the subject of a law review article and has been cited by courts in hundreds of cases.

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Recent representative matters include:

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• Advising a food and beverage company about state and local restrictions on expanded polystyrene food trays

• Assisting a national manufacturer of bioplastics evaluate sustainability initiatives​​

• Providing support for numerous companies evaluating producer status under EPR programs on national wide basis in collaboration with EPR Group Consulting 

• Representing the Port of Oakland in remediation and development projects, including the proposed $24 billion development of the Howard Terminal into a baseball stadium and a commercial and residential complex;

• Developing Proposition 65 compliance plans for numerous clients, including consumer products, food & beverage, and the healthcare industry;

• Assisting an international printing company respond to customer inquiries about product stewardship practices;

• Advising a food and beverage client about webpage and marketing claims for compliance with the FTC's Green Guides and California law; 

• Advising a commercial property owner on a long-term remediation project and compliance with cleanup & abatement order, including off-site vapor intrusion investigation and remediation of emerging contaminants;

• Advising developer client about implementation of vapor intrusion mitigation measures at mixed use development project, associated land use controls, and compliance with agency directives re: same;

• Advising owner of restaurant chain about potential liabilities associated with the purchase of contaminated property subject to DTSC cleanup order;

• Settling Proposition 65 claim on behalf of pharmaceutical company. ​

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Before establishing EGC, Catherine co-founded and managed a seven-attorney law firm fand previously served as a partner/shareholder at two leading Bay Area law firms for over twenty years, Hanson & Bridgett in San Francisco and the former Wendel Rosen Black & Dean based in Oakland.  Catherine started her environmental practice at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati in Palo Alto, returning years later to serve as Environmental Counsel supporting their M&A practice. Before practicing law, she served as a consultant to ICF, Inc., assisting he U.S. EPA in developing some of the environmental regulations under certain provisions of CERCLA and federal solid and hazardous waste laws. 

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Catherine has served on the board of directors of Zyzzyva, a nationally known literary magazine and of Bay Area Legal Aid, a non-profit group providing pro bono legal services to the underserved.   

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Memberships:

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•  Advisory Board for the Bar Association of San Francisco's Environmental Section; previously served as Chair of the Section

• Advisory Board for Proposition 65 Clearinghouse News​

• SB 54 Implementation Working Group, National Stewardship Action Council, Chair Subcommittee on Labeling and End Markets ​

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Speaking Engagements (2022-2025):

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• 35th Annual Environmental Law Conference at Yosemite, sponsored by the Environmental Section of the California Lawyers Association nationally recognized as the largest and most prestigious gathering in California of leaders in environmental, land use, and natural resources law, on a panel about EPR and the future of the circular economy (scheduled for October 17, 2026)

• recognized EPR Think Tank sponsored y the American Conference Institute in San Francisco, California (scheduled for October 6-7, 2026)

• PFAS and Environmental Due Diligence, Environmental Law Institute (March 2026)

• EPR Think Tank, sponsored by the American Conference Institute in New York City

• (January 2026) 

• EPR Challenges in Implementation, sponsored by the Personal Care Products Council (September 2025)

• Contaminated Properties: Beyond ASTM, Stafford Webinars (October 2025)

• EPR and State Developments, Panelist for EPR Think Tank, sponsored by the American Conference Institute in New York City (May 28, 2025)

• Updates on Recent Appellate Court Decisions, Annual Prop 65 Conference (September 2023)

• Contaminated Properties: Beyond ASTM, Stafford Webinars (July 2023)

• Implementing an ESG Program, Bar Association of San Francisco (June 2023)

• Attorneys Fees and Prop 65, Proposition 65 Clearinghouse Annual Conference (September 2022)

• Buying Contaminated Properties, California County Counsel Association (May 2022)