Our Clients 

The Ayres Law Group advises and represents national and multinational corporations, investment banks, small businesses, state and local governments, trade associations, non-profit organizations, and individuals in high-stakes litigation and EPA regulatory proceedings, and before the U.S. Congress. Among those we have represented are Honeywell International Inc., John Deere Consumer Products, Calera Corporation, International Paper Co., Calpine Corporation, the States of Illinois and North Carolina, and 200 citizens of a small Ohio town.

Private litigation

We represented a major electric power company in Massachusetts v. EPA, the most important environmental case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2007. In recent years, we successfully overturned and defended EPA rules in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on behalf of multinational companies.

Legislative advocacy

We use our considerable experience in drafting and presenting legislative proposals in Congress to effectively advocate for our clients. We provide advice and legislative representation to clients in the refrigeration and electric power industries with respect to federal climate change legislation and proposals for a clean energy standard.

Regulatory services

We also provide regulatory services to clients with interests ranging from refining to clean energy product development to chemical manufacture.  We routinely advise clients on compliance with existing regulations as well as advocate for their interests in regulations under development.  Representative clients include:

• A multinational chemical company seeking approval from EPA for substitutes to ozone-depleting chemicals being phased out under the stratospheric ozone protection provisions of the Clean Air Act
• A refiner on a fuels program compliance issue
• A clean tech startup seeking to have its process recognized in EPA’s New Source Review (NSR) program

Public-sector clients

We represented an association of state and local air pollution control agencies in Duke Energy v. Environmental Defense (127 S.Ct. 1423 (2007)) decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2007. We assisted an association of state agencies in drafting mercury rules, helped draft and defend rules for Illinois and Florida, and successfully represented the Attorney General of North Carolina in a precedent-setting common law pollution control action, which provided a template for an omnibus settlement between TVA and EPA, four states, and other litigants that will result in major reductions in TVA emissions

For details on this case, please see:

• Anne Paine, TVA must limit plants' pollution, Tennessean.com (Jan. 14, 2009)
• Press Release, North Carolina Attorney General, AG Cooper seeks to stop TVA from unlawfully polluting NC air (January 30, 2006)
• Elizabeth Shogren, North Carolina Sues TVA to Clean Up Pollution, National Public Radio, January 2, 2008
• North Carolina v. Tennessee Valley Authority, No. 1:06-CV-20, complaint filed (W.D.N.C. January 30, 2006)
• Felicity Barringer, “TVA to close 18 Coal-Fired Generators and Curb Pollution,” New York Times, April 15, 2011.
• “A Victory for Cleaner Air, and the Law,” NYT April 17, 2011

Individuals

Ayres Law Group also represents individuals. We were lead counsel for the citizens of the small village of Cheshire, Ohio, achieving the largest monetary settlement in U.S. history for a private air pollution matter. Press coverage of the case includes:

• Katharine Q. Seelye, Utility Buys Town it Choked, Lock, Stock, and Blue Plume, N.Y. TIMES, May 13, 2002 at A1.
• Michael Hawthorne, AEP Agrees to Buy Out Entire Town, COLUMBUS DISPATCH, Apr. 17, 2002