Robert S. Sanoff

Partner - Boston

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Contact Information

617.832.1152

617.832.7000

rsanoff@foleyhoag.com Download vCard

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.

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Education:

  • University of Pennsylvania Law School, J.D., magna cum laude, Order of the Coif
  • University of Virginia, Ph.D., Virginia Danforth Fellowship
  • Hamilton College, B.A., Phi Beta Kappa

Representative Experience

  • 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.
  • 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
  • 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.)
  • 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 to the fifteen defendants in a private contribution action arising in connection with the Lemberger Superfund Site in Manitowoc, Wisconsin
  • 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
  • Was lead trial counsel in a long-term supply contract dispute tried in 2007 in the Business Section of Massachusetts Superior Court
  • 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
  • Served as mediator in connection with multi-million dollar dispute involving the Organic Chemicals, Inc. Superfund Site (MI)
  • Serves as lead trial counsel for the policyholder in a multi-million dollar insurance coverage dispute pending in Mercer County in New Jersey
  • Represented Raytheon in multi-million dollar environmental insurance coverage dispute, Raytheon Company v. Continental Insurance Company, C.A. No. 00-11184-PBS (D. Mass.)
  • 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)

Honors

  • Listed in MASSACHUSETTS SUPER LAWYERS 
  • Ranked by CHAMBERS USA: AMERICA'S LEADING LAWYERS FOR BUSINESS as one of Massachusetts' leading environmental lawyers (2010-2013) 
  • Listed in WHO'S WHO LEGAL 
  • UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA LAW SCHOOL LAW REVIEW, Editor 
  • Listed in BEST LAWYERS IN AMERICA (2008-2013)

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)
  • 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
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Bar Admissions

  • Massachusetts

Court Admissions

  • 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