Beth works closely with clients to identify and limit environmental liabilities, effectively market their products, and manage their regulatory obligations.
Beth works with clients in the retail, consumer products, and electronics/IT sectors to bring their products to market, transport them globally, manage supply chains, and ensure appropriate handling of products at end-of-life. She co-chairs the firm’s Retail group and works with retail companies and trade associations to identify and overcome the challenges posed by the myriad of environmental regulations. Due to her experience with reverse logistics, environmental auditing, due diligence, and drafting and negotiating environmental provisions of agreements, she approaches environmental issues from a systemic and business-oriented perspective.
As a trusted advisor to her clients, Beth helps them solve problems. She has a collaborative leadership style, working with client teams and other Beveridge & Diamond lawyers to understand her clients’ needs, identify pressure points, build consensus, and find the right solution.
Beth advises and defends clients on Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) hazardous waste regulations, U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) hazardous materials transportation rules and their international dangerous goods transportation counterparts, and product materials restrictions and recycling requirements, including the European Union's Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) and Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directives. She has also represented trade associations and companies in U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and DOT rulemakings.
Her transactional work includes due diligence for major acquisitions of chemical and other manufacturing facilities and product-specific due diligence focused on evaluating a target company’s compliance with market access restrictions and other product requirements. She drafts and negotiates environmental provisions of agreements. Post-transaction, she works to transfer environmental permits, assists companies in integrating newly acquired assets and systems, and leads environmental compliance audits.
Beth considers herself fortunate to work with innovative companies that are looking to build a better world. She chose a career in environmental law because she is fascinated by the complexity of natural systems, their interrelationship with human progress, and the multidisciplinary approaches to solving environmental problems necessary to ensure a clean and healthy environment for today and generations to come.
More Legal and Business Bylines From Elizabeth M. Richardson
- EPA Proposal to Modernize the RCRA Ignitability Characteristic May Cause More Wastes to be Classified as Hazardous - (Posted On Wednesday, April 10, 2019)
- DOT/PHMSA Proposes to Harmonize U.S. Lithium Battery Transport Requirements With International Standards - (Posted On Monday, September 26, 2016)
- EPA Issues Strategy to Address the Mismatch Between the Federal Hazardous Waste Rules and the Retail Sector - (Posted On Friday, September 23, 2016)
- FedEx Settlement with California Department of Toxic Substances Control Contains Important Lessons/Reminders for Product and Waste Shippers - (Posted On Friday, July 08, 2016)
- DOT Issues Final Rule Providing Only Very Limited Relief for Reverse Logistics of Retail Products - (Posted On Wednesday, March 30, 2016)
- International Civil Aviation Organization Bans Bulk Shipments of Lithium Batteries as Cargo on Passenger Aircraft - (Posted On Monday, February 29, 2016)
- Understanding New Lithium Battery Transport Requirements & Emerging Developments as Safety Concerns Mount - (Posted On Wednesday, February 10, 2016)
- California Continues Hazardous Waste Enforcement Campaign Against Retailers With Two New Multi-Million Dollar Settlements - (Posted On Thursday, March 12, 2015)
- Michigan Retailer Pays $2M Fine for Alleged Distribution of Recalled Products by Contractor, Agrees to Maintain Internal Compliance Program - (Posted On Thursday, October 09, 2014)
- DOT Harmonizes Lithium Battery Regulations with International Standards for Air and Ground Transport in Long-Awaited Final Rule - (Posted On Tuesday, August 12, 2014)