29
July

About

For General Counsel - Why Use RWCS?

We do plenty of work in Oklahoma, obviously, but we also do work all over the country (and overseas).  If you are a general counsel looking for real value, here are five reasons to consider using RWCS -- either in Oklahoma or anywhere you need us.

  1. We have a passion to handle challenging environmental, energy, securities, and other litigation cases - wherever they may be - in a way and at a price that gives you improved results, decreased costs, and better communication. 
  2. We are a bunch of super capable, interesting, trustworthy people who know our way around courtrooms, corporate suites, and government corridors.  
  3. Our rate structure (your cost) is far less than law firms in larger cities or on the coasts, yet RWCS can provide an equivalent or better level of expertise and service.
  4. We constantly work to stay on top of things.  We know we have to earn and maintain your trust every day; each of us pledges outstanding legal service and value, and we have the systems in place throughout the firm to deliver on that promise every time. 
  5. If you need tradition, we've done a lot of work for a lot of great clients over the years, and would be happy to provide specific references.  Representative clients include: Chesapeake, Halliburton, Weyerhaeuser, Tronox, American Airlines, Holcim (US) Inc., the State of Oklahoma (various agencies), Continental Carbon Company, etc.

Recent Interesting Cases

Backed by top-notch associates, staff, and using the latest technology, the RWCS legal team handles complex litigation including cases involving huge document productions and scores of depositions. 

For example, during 2005-2009, RWCS handled a major toxic tort class action alleging property damage throughout a county-wide area.  RWCS simultaneously defended against the Plaintiffs' allegations and pursued a contribution case against a third-party defendant.  The case involved, among other things, production of more than 300,000 pages of documents by our client, production of more than one million pages of documents by the opposing third-party defendant, and 125 depositions.  More than 75 percent of the depositions lasted one day or longer, including 31 multiple day expert depositions.  The case included very detailed, sophisticated expert work in the following areas:

  • County-wide air quality modeling (ambient air concentration as surrogate for ground-level deposition).
  • Transmission electron microscope (TEM) analysis of hundreds of samples under ASTM standard.
  • Oil refinery and carbon black manufacturing plant operations, air emissions, and control equipment.
  • Aerial photography interpretation.
  • Damages including alleged county-wide property value diminution and cleaning costs.

In 2010, RWCS also handled mass toxic tort litigation that involved taking the depositions of more than 400 individual plaintiffs and then conducting follow-up inspections of approximately 175 of their homes.  The home inspections were done by a unique team led by an RWCS attorney using four experts:  an experienced environmental forensic consultant to sample inside and outside following ASTM standards for identifying environmental particulate, a Ph.D. forensic and soils expert using a portable microscope, a local contractor with 37 years experience in home remodeling, and, on some occasions, a civil engineer with expertise in analysis of particulate or staining on roofs.  The entire deposition-inspection campaign was conducted during November 2009-June 2010.

More About Our People:

Pat Ryan is the former U.S. Attorney who personally prosecuted the Oklahoma City bombing trials, winning convictions against Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols.  For many years, Ryan has been acknowledged as one of Oklahoma and the country’s leading trial lawyers.  Recently, he was featured in the cover article for the 2008 edition of Oklahoma Super Lawyers. 

Phillip Whaley has tried many cases over the years in the areas of class actions, business litigation, insurance defense, securities litigation, and environmental litigation. 

Mark Coldiron was one of the lead trial attorneys in the well known Hardage Superfund case during 1987-1990 (first EPA-mandated remedy case tried; successful result for the defendant companies) and, together with Don Shandy, went on to build our current practice representing large and small companies in environmental and energy litigation and regulatory matters. 

Don Shandy is one of the nation’s leading air pollution and environmental law experts, with twenty years experience representing Oklahoma, regional, and national clients in Clean Air Act and other environmental projects, regulation, enforcement, and litigation. 

The name partners are backed by an exceptionally strong team of attorneys, including:

  • Dan Webber – white collar criminal defense; also a former US attorney (W.D. Okla.)
  • Keith Klein – 18 years in environmental law; LL.M in environmental law from George Washington University; retired Air Force JAG
  • Steve Jantzen – 15 years in environmental law; LL.M in environmental law from George Washington University
  • Mike Peters – 12 years in the trenches of air quality permitting and enforcement; former attorney with the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality
  • Steve Gelnar – a wealth of experience in all business transactions including oil and gas
  • Paula Jantzen – environmental and natural resources; formerly practiced in New Mexico
  • Ricky Pearce – brief writer extraodinaire

 

 

 

You Are Here:

Ryan Whaley Coldiron Shandy, PLLC

900 Robinson Renaissance
119 N. Robinson Avenue
Oklahoma City, OK 73102
Phone:    405.239.6040
Fax:          405.239.6766
rwcs@ryanwhaley.com