The Goldstein Environmental Law Firm, P.A., is a Florida‑based boutique law firm devoted exclusively to environmental law and environmental redevelopment. We represent developers, investors, owners, lenders, agricultural and industrial sector companies, and local governments facing one of the most complex challenges in real estate and infrastructure development: how to acquire, clean up, entitle, finance, and redevelop contaminated or environmentally constrained property in a way that is legally defensible, technically sound, and commercially successful without losing time to regulatory friction, design rework, or avoidable construction surprises.
Our practice is purpose‑built for projects where environmental conditions are not a side issue but the central driver of risk, cost, timing, and ultimate feasibility. Former gas stations, landfills, dry cleaners, industrial facilities, farmlands, citrus groves, golf courses, brownfields, and Superfund sites all present layers of regulatory, technical, and liability considerations that must be addressed early and integrated carefully into project planning. We help clients navigate those challenges with clarity, precision, and momentum—turning environmental obstacles into manageable redevelopment pathways.
Leadership and Vision: Michael R. Goldstein
The Firm’s practice is shaped by the leadership and vision of its Managing Partner, Michael R. Goldstein, a recognized pioneer in brownfields redevelopment law in Florida and a nationally respected advocate for environmental revitalization policy. For more than three decades, Michael has focused his career on the intersection of contaminated site cleanup, land reuse, environmental incentives, and public policy—helping transform how environmentally impaired properties are addressed by regulators, developers, and communities Michael played a foundational role in the development and implementation of Florida’s Brownfields Redevelopment Act and has been directly involved in the growth of the Florida Brownfields Program since its earliest years. Through this work, Michael has helped position brownfields redevelopment not only as an environmental protection tool but as a powerful engine for housing production, job creation, infrastructure investment, and community revitalization. At the national level, Michael is a consistent voice advocating for practical, redevelopment-oriented approaches to contaminated site cleanup. He has worked with technical and legal staff for U.S. EPA, Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP), and county-based pollution control programs, as well as federal and state elected officials and legislative staff, industry groups, and municipal governments to advance policies that encourage reuse while maintaining protectiveness of human health and the environment.
As Managing Partner, Michael sets the Firm’s strategic direction and culture. He emphasizes collaboration with technical professionals, early engagement with regulators, and solutions that are legally sound, scientifically defensible, and economically realistic.
A Firm Built for Contaminated-Site Transactions and Complex Redevelopment
What distinguishes our Firm is our redevelopment‑first mindset. We do not treat environmental compliance as an after‑the‑fact exercise or a series of isolated regulatory hurdles. Instead, we integrate environmental strategy into the earliest stages of site acquisition, conceptual planning, and deal structuring so that cleanup obligations, land‑use approvals, financing requirements, and construction sequencing work together rather than at cross‑purposes. Just as importantly, we are structured to operate “inside the project team.” Our attorneys work side‑by‑side with civil engineers, environmental consultants, geotechnical professionals, planners, architects, and contractors to translate regulatory requirements into buildable solutions. We focus relentlessly on execution: minimizing redesign, avoiding mid‑construction surprises, reducing regulatory rework and change orders, managing risk, and aligning agency expectations with real‑world development schedules.
End-to-End Redevelopment of Contaminated Sites
Many firms can advise on contamination. Far fewer can help you build on it. Our Redevelopment of Contaminated Sites Practice is designed to carry projects from concept planning through ribbon-cutting with a practical, execution-driven roadmap. We routinely assist clients with:
- Front-end evaluation and deal structuring. We coordinate and interpret Phase I and Phase II environmental site assessments, geotechnical investigations, hazardous building materials surveys, and natural resource evaluations. We identify data gaps early and design targeted supplemental investigations that answer the questions regulators, lenders, and equity partners actually ask. At the same time, we structure environmental risk allocation through purchase and sale agreements, redevelopment agreements, indemnities, escrows, and environmental insurance products that support closing and financing.
- Cleanup strategy aligned with site design. We collaborate with civil and geotechnical engineers and environmental consultants to integrate remedial components—such as caps, vapor mitigation systems, engineered barriers, drainage layers, and utility corridors—into grading, foundation, and infrastructure plans. We advise on engineering and institutional controls, including easements, deed restrictions, operation and maintenance obligations, and monitoring requirements, in a way that protects human health and the environment without unnecessarily constraining future use.
- Permitting for contaminated sites. Contaminated‑site redevelopment often requires a dense web of approvals involving soil and groundwater management, dewatering and discharge, stormwater and ERP permitting, waste handling, air considerations, and UST or landfill closure. We help clients sequence and secure these approvals efficiently and provide real‑time support during construction to address regulator questions, inspections, and unexpected field conditions.
- Construction-phase compliance and regulator interface. We review contractor submittals and environmental plans for consistency with permits and consent orders, join construction meetings to spot issues early, serve as the primary interface with regulators, and respond to inspections, community concerns, and compliance questions in real time—preserving momentum while maintaining protectiveness and defensibility.
Technical and Regulatory Depth in Cleanup of Contaminated Sites in Florida
The Firm’s technical strength is enhanced by Dr. Brian J. Dougherty, Director of Technical and Regulatory Services, whose career includes 34 years of experience and leadership at the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. As Program Manager within FDEP’s Division of Waste Management, Brian served as the statewide technical lead for contaminated site cleanup programs, overseeing complex remedial decisions, closure strategies, and consistency across district offices. Of particular significance, Brian played a direct role in rulemaking and implementation under Chapter 62‑780, Florida Administrative Code—the rule that governs contaminated site cleanup in Florida. Over more than a decade, he served as rule manager or senior contributor for multiple revisions to Chapter 62‑780, addressing issues such as risk‑based cleanup criteria, soil and groundwater modeling, direct exposure standards, pesticide‑impacted agricultural sites, and the evolution of institutional controls beyond traditional deed restrictions. Brian also coordinated FDEP’s Contaminated Media Forum, a statewide technical workgroup examining scientific and regulatory issues, including background soil methodologies, statistical tools, and application of cleanup target levels at large and complex sites. For clients, this experience means that cleanup strategies are informed by what the rule says and how FDEP expects it to be applied in practice—reducing review cycles, minimizing disagreement, and improving defensibility.
Signature Strength: Florida and National Leadership in Brownfields Revitalization
The Firm is widely recognized as one of Florida’s leading brownfields law practices, with decades of experience working under the Florida Brownfields Redevelopment Act and the U.S. EPA Brownfields Program. We guide clients through the entire brownfields lifecycle—from eligibility determinations and local government designation of Brownfield Areas, through negotiation of Brownfield Site Rehabilitation Agreements (BSRAs), to implementation of cleanup, redevelopment, and long‑term stewardship obligations.
Recognized statewide for his leadership in environmental redevelopment, Brett C. Brumund leads the Firm’s Brownfields Practice, bringing decades of programmatic experience, regulatory credibility, and transaction-level insight to the designation, cleanup, and reuse of environmentally impacted properties throughout Florida.
The Firm’s nationally recognized Brownfields Practice reflects unmatched experience in every phase of Florida’s Brownfields Redevelopment Program. Brett serves as the Firm’s principal strategist and advocate in securing Brownfield Area designations, working closely with senior municipal leadership, elected officials, economic development professionals, and community stakeholders to demonstrate compliance with statutory designation criteria and to resolve complex legal, technical, and regulatory issues associated with designation approvals. Through this leadership, the Firm has assisted local governments and private stakeholders in securing designation of more than 160 Brownfield Areas across nearly 100 jurisdictions throughout Florida, positioning these sites for environmental restoration, economic revitalization, and long-term community benefit.
Brett also leads the Firm’s negotiation and implementation of Brownfield Site Rehabilitation Agreements (BSRAs) with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and delegated local pollution-control programs, including Miami-Dade County, Broward County, and Hillsborough County. The Firm has negotiated more than 200 BSRAs, which frequently serve as the regulatory and financial framework for redevelopment projects. These agreements provide certainty regarding remediation obligations, establish risk management strategies, and secure statutory liability protections that are essential to developers, landowners, lenders, and institutional investors seeking to responsibly redevelop environmentally impacted properties.
Complementing this regulatory and transactional work, Brett directs the Firm’s extensive work under Florida’s Voluntary Cleanup Tax Credit (VCTC) Program, one of the state’s most important financial incentive tools supporting brownfields redevelopment. He oversees multidisciplinary teams of attorneys, technical consultants, and financial auditors responsible for preparing, filing, and defending tax credit applications and responding to agency review inquiries to maximize client eligibility and recovery. Collectively, the Firm has prepared and submitted more than 420 VCTC applications on behalf of clients, helping unlock substantial economic incentives that significantly improve project feasibility, particularly for affordable housing developments, mixed-use revitalization projects, and public-sector park, recreation, and open-space reuse initiatives.
CERCLA and Superfund Redevelopment-Oriented Federal Capability
The Firm maintains a sophisticated federal practice focused on CERCLA liability management, Superfund redevelopment, and contaminated site reuse under EPA oversight. We counsel potentially responsible parties, purchasers, developers, and public entities on PRP strategy, cost recovery and contribution, CERCLA Section 104(e) information requests, institutional controls, long‑term stewardship, and redevelopment planning at Superfund sites.
A defining strength of this practice is the Firm’s direct, inside‑the‑agency experience with EPA’s Superfund Redevelopment Program (SRP). Senior Attorney Matthew (Matt) Sander brings more than two decades of senior leadership experience within U.S. EPA’s Office of Site Remediation Enforcement, where his work focused squarely on removing legal and institutional barriers to the reuse of contaminated properties. During his tenure, Matt served in multiple senior and supervisory roles, including Supervisory Attorney and Team Leader for EPA’s brownfield amendments and revitalization work, and acted as a primary legal liaison to EPA’s Superfund redevelopment coordinators nationwide. In that capacity, Matt provided site‑specific legal support to facilitate reuse at Superfund sites across the country. His experience includes negotiating and drafting Prospective Purchaser Agreements, comfort and status letters, Ready for Reuse determinations, and other liability‑clarifying tools that are essential for developers, lenders, and public entities considering the reuse of contaminated land. He also co‑authored national EPA guidance addressing institutional controls and redevelopment at Superfund sites—guidance that continues to shape EPA’s approach to balancing protectiveness with economic reuse. Matt’s work was not only legal but programmatic. As a Supervisory Attorney, he led teams handling Superfund enforcement, redevelopment policy, institutional controls, and state and local coordination. EPA has formally recognized Matt for his leadership in Superfund redevelopment, including receiving an EPA Bronze Medal for Superfund Redevelopment. For clients, this experience translates into practical insight into how EPA evaluates redevelopment proposals, what tools are realistically available, and how to engage regulators constructively to accelerate reuse.
The Firm’s Brownfields Practice is closely integrated with its CERCLA and Superfund Redevelopment Practice, allowing clients to seamlessly transition between state and federal cleanup frameworks as site conditions, funding opportunities, and redevelopment goals evolve. This integrated approach enables the Firm to align Brownfield Area designations, BSRAs, tax credit strategies, and Superfund liability management into a cohesive redevelopment pathway—delivering regulatory certainty, financial efficiency, and long-term risk management for complex projects involving both state and federally regulated sites.
Transactional Environmental Counsel for Deals Involving Real Risk
Environmental risk frequently determines whether a deal closes, stalls, or collapses. Our Transactional Environmental Practice is built on a simple principle: deals close efficiently when environmental risk is identified precisely and allocated credibly without over-lawyering or avoidable delay. We negotiate environmental provisions in purchase and sale agreements, leases, financing documents, joint ventures, and redevelopment agreements; prepare environmental opinion letters; and structure layered risk management solutions involving indemnities, escrows, and environmental insurance (such as pollution legal liability and specialized transactional products), including manuscripted endorsements where standard terms fall short. Because we are deeply involved in cleanup and permitting execution, our transactional advice is grounded in practical realities rather than abstract worst‑case scenarios. We help clients avoid over‑allocating risk in ways that undermine financing while still protecting against material exposure.
Natural Resources and Conservation
Florida development often lives or dies at the intersection of wetlands, surface waters, protected habitats, and species considerations. Our Natural Resources and Conservation Practice guides clients from early feasibility and ecological evaluation through permitting, mitigation planning, agency negotiation, and dispute resolution—before agencies including USACE, USFWS, FDEP, FWC, the Water Management Districts, and county environmental programs. We also bring deep experience navigating Miami-Dade’s Natural Forest Community (NFC) program and resolving complex permitting and enforcement issues involving sensitive habitats such as pine rocklands and tropical hardwood hammocks.
Environmental Permitting, Compliance, and Enforcement: Florida-Focused and Practical
We represent clients in the full spectrum of environmental permitting, compliance counseling, and enforcement defense before local, state, and federal agencies. Our permitting work spans Florida wetland and stormwater authorizations (ERP), Clean Water Act matters (including Section 404/Section 10 and NPDES), air permitting strategies (including Title V and synthetic minor approaches), solid and hazardous waste permits, and contaminated media management approvals central to redevelopment projects. We also defend enforcement actions (NOVs, consent orders, administrative litigation, civil enforcement), negotiate compliance schedules and penalty mitigation, and help clients build durable compliance systems that reduce risk over time.
Environmental Litigation and Cost Recovery
The Firm represents clients in complex environmental disputes where legal strategy must align with technical realities and business objectives. Our Environmental Litigation and Cost Recovery Practice supports property owners, developers, lenders, and local governments in prosecuting and defending claims under CERCLA, RCRA, and Florida Chapters 376 and 403, as well as challenging agency action under Florida’s Administrative Procedure Act. Our approach combines deep statutory and regulatory knowledge with practical experience in contaminated site cleanup, brownfields redevelopment, and enforcement, allowing us to develop litigation strategies that are legally sound, scientifically grounded, and commercially practical.
Our litigation strength is reinforced by in-house regulatory and scientific capabilities that directly inform case strategy. We bring extensive insight into federal Superfund enforcement, including how EPA evaluates liability, applies landowner defenses, and approaches institutional controls and reuse determinations, as well as technical and state regulatory expertise grounded in Florida’s risk-based corrective action framework and contamination cleanup criteria. This includes experience with groundwater plume behavior, fate and transport analysis, risk assessment methodologies, and cleanup target levels, allowing us to anticipate enforcement positions, develop expert strategies, evaluate opposing opinions, and present clear, credible narratives to regulators, mediators, and courts.
As a boutique firm, we provide focused environmental litigation counsel and partner with experienced trial lawyers when matters require full-scale litigation. In those cases, we lead on environmental and technical strategy, expert development, and resolution of complex allocation and cleanup issues.
Environmental Policy and Regulatory Affairs
In addition to project-level legal and technical work, the Firm maintains a robust Environmental Policy and Regulatory Affairs Practice focused on shaping and navigating the laws, regulations, and public policies that govern environmental protection and redevelopment. We advise and advocate for clients before Congress, U.S. EPA, the Florida legislature, FDEP, and local governments on matters involving pollution control, clean air regulation, natural resource protection, land use, and the operation of complex industrial facilities. Our governmental relations work spans the full spectrum of advocacy, from monitoring proposed legislation and agency rulemaking to drafting statutory language, preparing testimony, educating decision-makers, and negotiating regulatory outcomes. At the federal level, we assist clients with matters involving the Clean Air Act, CERCLA and Superfund policy, RCRA hazardous waste regulation, PFAS legislation and rulemaking, and federal funding programs supporting cleanup and environmental infrastructure.
The Firm helps clients engage effectively with congressional offices, committee staff, and agency leadership to ensure that their perspectives are informed by sound science and real-world operational considerations. In Florida, we represent clients before the legislature and executive agencies on issues including industrial air permitting, waste management and waste-to-energy regulation, contaminated site cleanup standards, brownfields redevelopment incentives, and water quality programs. We assist clients in shaping legislation and rulemaking that affects how facilities are permitted, monitored, and operated, with a focus on achieving outcomes that are protective yet practical. Across all levels of government, our advocacy is grounded in credibility and collaboration. We bridge the gap between technical environmental science and the realities policymakers face, crafting messages that are accurate, persuasive, and responsive to public concerns. Our goal is to protect client interests and advance environmental policies that support cleanup, reuse, and sustainable development.