Overview

Alia Miles practices in Stoel Rives’ Environment, Land Use & Natural Resources group. Alia advises clients on complex challenges arising under federal and state environmental laws. She represents clients involved in all phases of cleanup of contaminated properties. She also counsels clients on environmental compliance and managing environmental risks in project development and transactions. Alia has extensive experience working with clients on issues related to Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) and analogous state cleanup laws. Her compliance practice currently emphasizes advising clients regarding Oregon’s Plastic Pollution and Recycling Modernization Act and other extended producer responsibility laws.  

Before joining Stoel Rives, Alia was a Senior Assistant Attorney General with the Oregon Department of Justice (ODOJ), where she advised Oregon state agencies regarding complex legal issues related to environmental and natural resource matters, including the Portland Harbor Superfund Site and other cleanup sites. Before joining ODOJ, Alia practiced environmental and energy law in Oregon, representing utility clients on project development, renewables and transmission, and a range of matters before the Oregon Public Utilities Commission.

Alia was a judicial clerk for Judge Rick T. Haselton of the Oregon Court of Appeals.

Education

Lewis & Clark Law School, J.D., Certificate in Environmental and Natural Resources Law, cum laude; Cornelius Honor Society; Articles Editor, Environmental Law Review; O’Rourke Award for best research paper on an environmental topic; Dean’s Scholarship

University of California San Diego, B.A., Eleanor Roosevelt College, History/Environmental Studies, 1992; Phi Beta Kappa; Dean’s List

Admissions

Oregon

Experience

State and Federal Compliance Counseling

  • Provide regulatory advice to clients on compliance with federal and state environmental laws, with a focus on contaminated properties, solid waste disposal sites, and other material management issues, including extended producer responsibility laws like Oregon’s Plastic Pollution and Recycling Modernization Act.
  • Work closely with environmental specialists, technical consultants, and expert witnesses on tasks ranging from preliminary GIS analysis to multimillion dollar reports in support of litigation.

Contaminated Site Cleanup and Redevelopment

  • Represent property owners performing remedial investigations, risk assessments, and remedial actions at contaminated properties.
  • Represented parties in a multiparty private cost allocation related to a complex Superfund sediment cleanup.
  • Assist clients with all phases of insurance recovery and participate in mediation and litigation to resolve insurance disputes.
  • Advise companies, including renewable energy, affordable housing, and real estate developers, through the acquisition, remediation, development, and sale of contaminated properties.

Environmental Due Diligence

  • Provide due diligence and advise on strategies to identify, mitigate, transfer, and price environmental issues and risks associated with mergers and acquisitions, real estate transactions, and energy developments.
  • Advise clients on pre-purchase due diligence, including Phase I and Phase II Environmental Site Assessment strategies, negotiating prospective purchaser agreements (PPAs), and drafting favorable environmental contract terms.
  • Assist clients in conducting environment audits.

Environmental Permitting

  • Worked closely with utility client to develop complex federal, state, and local permitting strategy and initial permit applications for major transmission project.
  • Advise clients whose land or business affects waterways regarding the complicated mix of local, state, and federal laws that govern ownership and use of lands under and adjacent to navigable waters.

Environmental Enforcement Defense and Litigation

  • Defend companies in federal and state environmental enforcement actions, including negotiation of civil settlements and penalties,.
  • Support litigation teams on cases involving complex environmental issues in state and federal court, including drafting motions for summary judgment and appellate briefs.

Government Law

  • Advise environmental clients regarding work with state agencies, agency jurisdiction and administration, consultation and pre-application meetings, public records, and related issues.
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