Haynes and Boone, LLP Senior Counsel Jeff Civins was elected as a regent of the American College of Environmental Lawyers. Regents serve a three-year term and assist the ACOEL president in running the college.
ACOEL is a by-invitation-only professional association of distinguished lawyers who practice environmental law and whom the organization determines are the best lawyers in each state. Members are dedicated to maintaining and improving the ethical practice of environmental law; the administration of justice; and the development of environmental law at the state and federal levels.
During more than 40 years of practice, Civins has helped clients find pragmatic solutions to tough problems involving all aspects of environmental law, including counseling them on regulatory issues, helping them manage environmental risks in business transactions, and advocating for them before agencies and courts. He makes it a point to learn about technical topics — from groundwater hydrology to air dispersion modeling to toxicology — and about clients’ businesses, including oil and gas exploration and development, power plants, refineries, chemical plants and other manufacturing facilities, and real estate sales, leasing, development and financing.
Before attending law school, Civins received a graduate degree in organic chemistry and then taught science, chemistry and earth science in New York City public and private schools. For 25 years, he has taught an environmental litigation class at the University of Texas at Austin School of Law.
His wide-ranging legal experience includes representing: a major multinational energy company to help it address regulatory issues associated with its proposed development of a multibillion-dollar gas-to-liquids project on the Gulf Coast; American Airlines in its litigation and settlement with United Airlines in a bankruptcy proceeding regarding contamination at JFK Airport; a consortium of underwriters in counseling on environmental risks associated with the TXU buyout; the U.S. Department of Treasury in environmental due diligence of new General Motors; Penn Central Corporation in its litigation and settlement of a Superfund case involving a former battery manufacturing facility on the banks of the Hudson River; and the State of Texas in Clean Water Act enforcement litigation against an independent oil company involving numerous oil spills in six different states.
Civins is the standing chair and organizer of the Texas Environmental Superconference, the premier environmental program in Texas, and is organizer and co-editor of the Thomson Reuters Texas Practice 2-volume treatise on Texas Environmental Law. In addition to being an ACOEL fellow, he is a former chair of the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Section of the State Bar of Texas and an advisory board member of UT’s Kay Bailey Hutchison Center for Energy, Law, and Business.