| Consulting Practice of Philip
L. Brooks, MBA
Damage Estimation/Decision Analysis
Many of the same techniques that apply in commercial damage cases
are also applicable to the calculation of environmentally-related
damages. For example, in the context of environmental cases, Mr.
Brooks has:
Applied decision analysis techniques to several different types
of situations. For example, in several cases, he developed decision
trees to estimate the value of future remediation costs, taking
into consideration the time value of money and various types of
uncertainties, including the magnitudes of contaminated materials,
the failure rate of alternative treatment technologies, and the
potential migration and geographic spread of underground contaminants.
He used decision trees in the context of advising lawyers as to
when they should settle and when they should litigate at twelve
individual hazardous waste remediation sites. Mr. Brooks also applied
decision analysis to the estimation of transaction costs (legal
and expert fees) at multiple sites.
Estimated property damages through a comparable properties analysis
that compared the value of recent sales of unaffected properties
with those of contamination-affected properties. To conduct such
analyses, he directed the collection of tax assessment data, zoning
information, and recent property purchase prices. This data was
then subjected to analysis to determine the fair market values of
the properties in question.
Compared “but for” and “actual world”
outcomes related to environmental damages. Such analyses often have
required financial modeling to identify the most plausible “but
for” world outcomes.
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Environmental Management Reviews
In many situations, corporations seek independent expertise to
evaluate ongoing environmental management issues. In this context,
Mr. Brooks has:
Evaluated for reasonableness the methodology employed by the in-house
staff of a large chemical company to set its financial reserves
related to a large remediation project.
Assisted counsel of a Fortune 100 company in the development of
“agreed upon” objectives and performance criteria in
the first phase of an environmental management review project. In
order to do this, he developed a detailed set of questions for use
in both headquarters and plant-level reviews and identified and
documented both past environmental compliance successes and failures
through a review of the client’s records and third party sources.
Assisted a manufacturing company in its assessment of the current
international regulatory environment for occupational exposure standards
for one of its strategic raw materials. This assessment included
review and analysis of regulatory procedures for standard setting,
trends in exposure level standards and organizations that influence
the regulatory process, and review of health effects data, including
key medical studies.
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Superfund Cost Allocation
Mr. Brooks has worked on numerous cost allocation cases. He:
Prepared and filed a written expert witness report in an environmental
cost allocation case. The case settled before deposition or trial
testimony was required.
Co-managed a team of over twenty-five people in the review of
fifty years of waste management and site records covering two floors
of a large warehouse for a large defense contractor to develop a
“waste-out” data base. The goal of the data base was
to proactively determine where wastes from the defense contractor’s
various manufacturing sites had been sent for disposal, so such
information could be used either to support or rebut cost allocation
claims made at various Superfund sites.
Coordinated investigations to identify the potentially responsible
parties at several hazardous waste disposal sites. For example,
at one site, he directed the development of a dBase III Plus waste-in
list data base for a site involving 600 parties. As part of this
engagement, he evaluated a waste-in list developed by a prior contractor,
analyzed relevant programming and data base deficiencies, implemented
corrections and enhancements, and supervised data entry procedures
for the addition of new information.
Prepared a report describing alternative methods for apportioning
cost responsibility among potentially responsible parties.
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Superfund Cost Recovery
In the context of hazardous waste remediation costs, sometimes
the government, a responsible party, or a group of responsible parties
attempt to recover cleanup costs from currently noncontributing
parties. Also, many firms that had comprehensive general liability
insurance policies during their years of disposing of hazardous
wastes attempt to recover some or all cleanup costs through negotiating
settlements or litigating against their insurance providers. In
these contexts, Mr. Brooks has assisted in the following types of
cost recovery efforts:
He reviewed environmental insurance claims to facilitate discussions
between a manufacturer and its insurer.
He provided financial analyses in the context of a particularly
important site.
He analyzed firms’ current and projected ability to pay
cleanup costs.
Contact Philip L. Brooks: philip@brooks-consulting.com
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