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Jeffrey C. Bates is a partner in the law firm of McDermott Will & Emery LLP and is based in the Firm's Boston office. He is a member of the Firm's Regulatory and Governmental Affairs Department. Jeffrey has practiced in the fields of international and environmental law, regulation and policy for over 30 years. He has represented corporations, governments, non-governmental organizations and individuals in the Americas, Europe, Asia and the Pacific Rim, involving matters throughout the United States and in more than 50 other countries.
Jeffrey is listed in Best Lawyers in America and holds a number one ranking from Chambers USA.
In the field of international law, Jeffrey has advised government, corporate, trade association and individual clients on, e.g., arbitration and litigation regarding Argentina's sovereign debt default and restructuring; the delimitation of the Caspian Sea; anti-corruption measures in Bosnia; human rights violations and remedies in Kosovo and Hungary; NAFTA arbitral tribunal jurisdiction; foreign direct investment and liability; cross-border insolvency and criminal proceedings, including the extradition of a former UN ambassador; sanctions and Office of Foreign Asset Control matters; Alien Tort Claims Act litigation; border disputes; fine art transactional and cultural patrimony issues; and the Law of the Sea.
In the environmental area, Jeffrey has provided counsel to corporations, environmental organizations and governments in connection with environmental litigation, due diligence, product roll-outs, compliance, cleanups, Brownfields development, insurance coverage and products, corporate and governmental policy, and legislation and rulemaking throughout the United States and worldwide. Jeffrey has served as a moderator, speaker and faculty member at environmental conferences and symposia in the Czech Republic, the Peoples Republic of China, Canada, Brazil, Great Britain and the United States. He has lectured on international environmental law at Harvard, the MIT Sloan School and the Organization of American States (OAS) course on international law, and he has moderated and spoken at symposia and panels in conjunction with the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, the American Society of International Law and the Royal Institute of International Affairs. Jeffrey has published widely on United States, international, Canadian, Latin American and Chinese environmental law and regulation.
Significant matters on which Jeffrey is currently working include European bondholder claims against Argentina in connection with Argentina's default on and restructuring of over $80 Billion in sovereign debt; the cleanup and resolution of claims regarding one of the world's largest contaminated sediment sites, the Lower Fox River/Green Bay site in Wisconsin and Michigan; and representing the National Council of the Union of Burma, the largest coalition of Burmese pro-democracy groups.
Jeffrey has considerable experience with high profile, complex litigation. Specific cases in which he has served as counsel include: Doe v. Milosevic (human rights and war crimes violations in Kosovo); Connor v. Aerovox (New Bedford Harbor PCB litigation); Toxic Time Bomb (featured in A Civil Action); UniFirst v. Allen (featured in HBO special, Toxic Time Bomb); CLF v. MWRA (Boston Harbor cleanup litigation); Warren v. EPA (appeal of EPA Clean Air Act Foreign Gasoline Rule); Monsanto v. Massachusetts Pesticide Board (appeal of revocation of license of world's largest selling pre-emergent corn and soybean herbicide); Polaroid v. EPA (appeal of EPA TSCA new chemical rules); Oneida Indian Nation v. New York (Native American land claim for central New York State); and the U.S. Department of Transportation "sick building" case.
Jeffrey is admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court, the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia and the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts.
Jeffrey was a Staff Assistant to U.S. Senator Adlai E. Stevenson III in 1971-72, and was a Ph.D. candidate at Boston College from 1972-1975.
Education:
University of Virginia School of Law, J.D., 1977.
Colgate University, B.A., 1971. | 