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 matters, Catherine's focus at EGC is on emerging EPR packaging programs and truth-in-labeling laws, mergers and acquisitions, remediation of contaminated properties, and Proposition 65. EPR Group Consulting offers multi-disciplinary consulting services about EPR packaging and paper programs on a nationwide basis. 

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Catherine represents a broad range of clients and industries, including manufacturing facilities, food and beverage companies, consumer products, public agencies, the transportation industry, hospitality, and the commercial real estate and multi-family housing industry.

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Catherine has represented Essex Property Trust, Inc., an S&P 500 publicly traded REIT, for over twenty-five years and has represented several of her other clients for over a decade, including the Port of Oakland, and the Oakland Housing Authority (the largest provider of affordable housing in Oakland) - as well as a brand leader in the food and beverage industry. 

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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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Before establishing EGC, Catherine co-founded and managed a seven-attorney law firm and previously served as a partner/shareholder at two leading Bay Area law firms for over twenty years, Hanson & Bridgett in San Francisco and Oakland's Wendel Rosen Black & Dean (now Fennemore). Catherine started her environmental practice at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati in Palo Alto, returning decades later to serve as Environmental Counsel supporting their M&A practice.

 

Before practicing law, she served as a consultant to ICF, Inc., assisting the U.S. EPA in developing some of the environmental regulations under 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 of the Subcommittee on Labeling and End Markets ​

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Speaking Engagements (2022-2026):

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• 35th Annual Environmental Law Conference at Yosemite, sponsored by the Environmental Section of the California Lawyers Association, a panelist on "EPR, Past Present and Future" 

• EPR Think Tank sponsored y the American Conference Institute in San Francisco, California (scheduled for October 6-7, 2026), Catherine will be co-charing the conference and moderating a panel with the lead Oregon and Colorado EPR regulators

• 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)