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Should "Substitute" Private Attorneys General Enforce Public Environmental Actions? Balancing The Costs And Benefits Of The Contingency-Fee Environmental Special Counselor Arrangement, Julie E. Steiner

Julie E. Steiner

There is developing phenomenon of quasi-privatized environmental enforcement occurring on behalf and in the name of governments by entrepreneurial attorneys who substitute in place of the public enforcers and derive professional payment from a contingent fee withdrawn from the public’s environmental damage award. This Article addresses the question of whether governments should permit private attorneys to handle these “substitute environmental special counsel” enforcement arrangements. In so doing, the Article weighs the arrangement’s costs and benefits from the standpoint of whether it maximizes the deterrence and restorative compensation goals of environmental enforcement.

Governments are often the only entities with standing to …