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Jeffrey Karp

Jeff heads the firm’s Environment, Energy & Natural Resources Practice Group. The Group includes the following fields of practice: environmental regulation, compliance, litigation and transactions; climate-related business & technology; energy transactions and finance; renewable energy, energy efficiency and clean technology; and water resources and conservation. The Group brings together practitioners from across the firm’s legal disciplines in its offices in Boston, New York, Washington, D.C., London and Tel Aviv. Jeff’s practice focuses on assisting clients in resolving complex regulatory matters and high-stakes business disputes, and engaging in cutting-edge technology transactions. He represents clients on the full range of environmental compliance issues under federal and state laws, including government investigations and enforcement actions. He also has extensive litigation experience, both on the government side and in private practice, and has an impressive track record of resolving disputes short of litigation, both with respect to claims arising under a wide range of federal and state laws, and those involving complex transactions. Jeff advises corporations, developers, financiers and individuals seeking to participate in water, renewable energy, and clean technology transactions and project development worldwide, with an emphasis on assisting Israeli companies seeking to commercialize their products, services, and technologies. He also has substantial experience assisting clients in addressing legal, contractual, and regulatory issues arising during the development of large-scale infrastructure projects, including obtaining government authorizations and negotiating project agreements. Before entering private practice in 1990, Jeff served as an environmental prosecutor at the U.S. Department of Justice, where he litigated and later also supervised enforcement cases involving a variety of environmental laws.
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Recent Posts

SEC's Increased Scrutiny of Climate Risk and ESG Disclosures Likely to Lead to Agency Rulemaking

Posted by Jeffrey Karp on January 31, 2022 at 1:20 PM

What public companies need to know about environmental disclosures, including recent climate risk and ESG disclosure initiatives.

By Jeffrey Karp, Senior Counsel; Vic Baltera, Partner; Howard Berkenblit, Partner; and Edward Mahaffey, Law Clerk

In fulfilling disclosure obligations under the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, public companies are required to disclose various potential environmental liabilities and potential risks in filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC or Commission). During the 1970s, SEC efforts in the area of environmental disclosure focused primarily on statutes such as the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act.

Subsequently, disclosure requirements were expanded to also encompass liabilities and cleanup costs under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA). Over time, the SEC increasingly has emphasized broader disclosure of environmental matters, as the Commission further articulated the materiality standards for disclosure under the securities laws. These standards provide that information is material if there is a substantial likelihood that a reasonable investor would consider it important in deciding how to vote or in making an investment decision—in other words, "that the disclosure of the omitted fact would have been viewed by the reasonable investor as having significantly altered the 'total mix' of information made available.'" See Basic, Inc. v. Levinson, 485 U.S. 224, 231 (1988) (quoting TSC Indus., Inc. v. Northway, Inc., 426 U.S. 438, 449 (1976)).

SEC disclosure requirements for environmental liabilities are contained primarily in the uniform disclosure rules of ...

Read full Client Alert here.

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The SEC Pulse provides updates and commentary from our Capital Markets Group on issues affecting publicly traded and privately owned businesses, investment banks and foreign companies who trade or raise capital in the United States, and boards of directors and company officers in securities transactions and corporate governance matters.

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