Lori A. Mills

Partner

  • Lori A. Mills
  • Phone: +1 856 874 4245

    Import to Address Book

  • Duane Morris LLP
    1940 Route 70 East, Suite 100
    Cherry Hill, NJ 08003-2171
    USA

Lori A. Mills handles complex, multiparty environmental litigation and also advises clients with respect to the environmental implications of real estate and corporate transactions. She has extensive experience in environmental compliance and enforcement actions; soil, groundwater and sediment contamination matters; industrial site remediation; Superfund compliance and cost recovery; private party cost recovery contribution and allocation proceedings; land purchase and brownfields development; and natural resource damages.

Specifically, in the area of NRD, Ms. Mills has negotiated several settlements with NJDEP under various phases of NJDEP’s NRD settlement program, including working with expert witnesses to address NRD valuation issues, and on federal NRD assessments associated with major waterways.

Ms. Mills’ environmental litigation experience includes cost recovery under various state statutes, allocation proceedings and toxic tort litigation. She also participates in strategic planning to manage high-profile environmental cases.

For the past 12 years, since 2011, Ms. Mills has been ranked in the area of Environmental in Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business.

Ms. Mills is a 1988 graduate, with honors, of Rutgers University School of Law and a 1985 magna cum laude graduate of Temple University.

Areas of Practice

  • Environmental Litigation
  • Environmental Transactions
  • Brownfields Development
  • Energy Law
  • Environmental Regulatory and Compliance

Representative Matters

  • Representing PRP Groups at three inter-related Superfund Sites arising out of the waste hauling activities of the Lightman Drum Company; work at the three sites variously includes efforts with USEPA to secure de-listing from Superfund status at one of the sites, implementation of a strategy to change the remedy at another of the sites to Monitored Natural Attenuation at a significant cost savings to the group; and integration of remediation and redevelopment initiatives at the third site.

  • Representing a chemical manufacturer subsidiary of a global, publicly-traded petroleum company in legacy environmental liability issues at numerous sites in New Jersey, including negotiating and implementing a two-site remedy at adjoining sites which are subject to separate federal and state clean-up orders; coordinating remediation on a site with a redevelopment project given a designation of “vital importance;” coordinating multi-site remediation obligations with construction of a major infrastructure project of national importance at those same sites; protecting property and remediation interests in the context of eminent domain proceedings; preparing and negotiating access, remediation, indemnity, release and reimbursement agreements regarding dozens of contaminated sites in New Jersey; advising on matters relating to the implementation of the remedial design for a USEPA selected remedy involving multiple miles of a major river in New Jersey.

  • Representing a PRP Group at a delisted Superfund site and fully remediated site to address the implications of emerging contaminants of concern, particularly PFAS chemicals, as related to ongoing site remediation obligations.

  • Representing a chemical manufacturer subsidiary of a global, publicly-traded petroleum company participating in a PRP Group to develop lines of evidence to convince regulatory agencies that sampling for emerging contaminants of concern, particularly PFAS chemicals, is not appropriate in the specific site setting.

  • Representing an oil company in addressing legacy environmental liability at 26 Sites located in Hudson and Essex Counties in New Jersey that are alleged to be contaminated by operations at a former company plant; sites include a commercial truck stop, an active chlorine plant and a power generation site, and issues include remediation and eminent domain. 

Admissions

  • New Jersey
  • Pennsylvania

Education

  • Rutgers School of Law - Camden, J.D., with honors, 1988
  • Temple University, B.A., magna cum laude, 1985

Experience

  • Duane Morris LLP
    - Partner, 2017-present
  • Drinker Biddle & Reath
    - Partner, 1995-2017
  • Cohen, Shapiro, Polisher, Sheikman & Cohen
    - Associate, 1989-1995
  • State of New Jersey, Superior Court
    - Law Clerk, 1988-1989

Professional Activities

  • New Jersey Bar Association
  • Princeton Bar Association
  • American Bar Association
  • Chemical Council of New Jersey

Honors and Awards

  • Listed in Best Lawyers in America, 2021-2024

  • Listed in Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business, 2011-2023

No aspect of these rankings has been approved by the Supreme Court of New Jersey. Further information on methodologies is available via these links.

Selected Publications