Robert S. Sanoff

  • Partner
  • Boston
  • 617 832 1152 direct
  • 617 832 7000 fax

Robby Sanoff has over 25 years of experience in litigation and dispute resolution that emphasizes environmental, insurance, and contract matters. He is former Co-Managing Partner of Foley Hoag and has been recognized in Chambers USA and Massachusetts SuperLawyers for his effectiveness at environmental litigation.

Robby has advised clients on more than 50 separate federal and state Superfund matters at sites throughout the United States. He has litigated several precedent-setting Superfund cases and has served as common counsel to large groups of defendants in site cleanups where the estimated cost has been in excess of $100 million. Although he has litigated many environmental matters, he works with clients to help them avoid litigation by providing strategic advice about compliance with the Massachusetts Contingency Plan and Chapter 21E.

In addition to environmental matters, Robby is an experienced litigator and trial lawyer in disputes involving insurance coverage, land use , and long-term energy supply contracts. Robby has resolved a number of cases through third-party facilitated mediation and has served as a mediator himself.

Bars and Court Admissions

  • Massachusetts
  • U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts
  • U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin
  • U.S. Court of Appeals, First Circuit

Representative Experience

The following is a brief summary of Robert's experience and accomplishments:

  • Was lead trial counsel in a long-term supply contract dispute tried in 2007 in the Business Section of Massachusetts Superior Court
  • Served as liaison counsel for the generator defendants in a $75 million Superfund cost recovery action brought by the United States with respect to the Davis Liquid Landfill Site in Smithfield, Rhode Island
  • Served as lead trial counsel defending against challenges to permits issued for two separate golf course projects: White Pine, LLC v. Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, No. 99-5758 (Mass. Super. Ct.) and Fitzgerald v. Vincent, No. 2001-02 (Mass. Super Ct.)
  • Served as mediator in connection with multi-million dollar dispute involving the Organic Chemicals, Inc. Superfund Site (MI)
  • Worked on such Superfund sites as the Davis Liquid Landfill Site (RI), the Cannon’s Engineering Superfund Sites (MA and NH), Silresim Site (MA), Solvent’s Recovery Superfund Site (CT), Charles George Landfill (MA), Landfill Resource and Recovery Site (RI), Shore Realty Superfund Site (NY), Kingston Steel Drum Superfund Site (NH), Ellis Road (FL), Holtz and Krause Landfill (WI), Pine Street Canal Site (VT), Hassyampa Landfill Site (AZ), and the Norwood PCB Site (MA)
  • Serves as the Executive Director and Project Coordinator on behalf of settling parties involved in the cleanup of the Cannons Engineering Superfund Sites and the Coakley Landfill Superfund Site
  • Served as common counsel for the third party defendants in litigation involving the Fike/Artel Superfund Site in Nitro, West Virginia, where cleanup costs are estimated to be $100 million
  • Acted as counsel to the Massachusetts Audubon Society and Berkshire Natural Resources Council with respect to the proposed Greylock Glen Project recreation and environmental education project in Adams, Massachusetts
  • Serves as lead trial counsel for the policyholder in a multi-million dollar insurance coverage dispute pending in Mercer County in New Jersey
  • Was lead trial counsel in Foss Manufacturing Company, Inc. v. Malden Mills Industries, Inc., (1999 Essex Super Ct.), involving enforcement of a memorandum of purchase of a manufacturing facility in Haverhill, MA.
  • Represented Raytheon in multi-million dollar environmental insurance coverage dispute, Raytheon Company v. Continental Insurance Company, C.A. No. 00-11184-PBS (D. Mass.)
  • Served as common counsel to the fifteen defendants in a private contribution action arising in connection with the Lemberger Superfund Site in Manitowoc, Wisconsin

professional / civic involvement

  • American Bar Association, Environmental Section, Member
  • Massachusetts Bar Association, Member
  • Boston Bar Association, Member
  • Member, Boston Bar Association Task Force on Expanding Civil Rights to Counsel (2007)

SPEECHES AND CONFERENCES

  • Frequent speaker at conferences on environmental law
  • Featured speaker at a seminar on Chapter 21E and the Massachusetts Contingency Plan
  • Frequently quoted in Boston Business Journal

publications

  • Co-author, Bestfoods -- A Return to Common Sense, 13 TOXICS LAW REVIEW 127 (June 24, 1998)
  • Safeguarding Two-Tiered Settlements, 19 THE NATIONAL LAW JOURNAL B-13 (March 17, 1997)
  • Navigating the Massachusetts Contingency Plan, 7 BEST OF MCLE JOURNAL 121 (February 1996)
  • Co-author, Chapter 16 - Superfund In the First Circuit, FEDERAL CIVIL LITIGATION IN THE FIRST CIRCUIT (1995 updated and republished 1998)
  • The Unraveling of Superfund, 7 TOXICS REPORTER, BNA 650 (November 3, 1993)
  • Allocation of Superfund Liability, MCLE (June 1993)
  • Co-author, Judicial Treatment of Settling Parties in Superfund Cases, 6 TOXICS LAW REPORTER, BNA 1551 (May 20, 1992)
  • Co-author, Allocating Contribution Shares in Superfund Cases, 20 CHEMICAL WASTE LITIGATION REPORTER 203 (1990)
  • Co-author, Responding to a Superfund Information Request, 2 TOXICS LAW REPORTER, BNA (December 2, 1987)