Steel and Specialty Metals

Assisting clients with the specifics required for bidding and winning government contracts, as well as ensuring compliance with all government contract obligations, is part of our Steel and Specialty Metals Team’s expertise. Our team also offers experienced counsel on matters as in-depth as international trade agreements and can even step in to represent clients in military-related contracts. For example, Phillips Lytle represented a U.S. steel company in responding to audit findings by the Defense Contract Audit Agency of non-U.S. content of steel plate purchased by an Israeli defense contractor under the Foreign Military Financing (FMF) program, including a request for waiver and future approvals of calculation methodology for non-U.S. scrap content.

Steel, specialty metals and specialty manufacturing companies turn to Phillips Lytle for services pertaining to the planning, zoning and energy use required for new buildings, production and manufacturing facilities, and other related projects.

Steel production facilities and other large-scale manufacturing centers require a great deal of planning in order to secure the proper agreements, permitting and approvals to begin work. Our attorneys have extensive experience working with local and state agencies on site acquisition, environmental permitting, project financing, tax credits and other incentives for such projects.

Our experience includes representation of clients seeking to construct new steel production facilities and other specialty facilities utilized in the steel industry. Some examples of our work include:

• Representing a tubular steel company on its new manufacturing facility on a portion of a 1,000+ acre brownfield in New York State. This includes structuring the transaction and closing their financing with a senior lender and subordinate financing provided by various public entities. We also assisted with securing substantial tax credits under New York’s Brownfield Cleanup Program and obtaining insurance coverage to minimize potential environmental risk exposure.
• Advising a United Arab Emirates company on an advanced manufacturing project (approximately $100 million) to develop a steel pipe. Phillips Lytle assisted on the site selection, land acquisition, negotiation of incentives and other related project development tasks.
• Representing a national steel parts supplier in the conversion and equipping of an underutilized manufacturing site. Matters included site acquisition, project financing, and obtaining NYS Empire Zone tax status and other incentives.

A host of environmental issues can arise related to the steel industry. The steel manufacturing process, waste management and disposal, site remediation and crisis response are just some of the factors that must be considered by our clients in the steel and specialty metals industry.

Phillips Lytle’s attorneys who focus on the steel industry and specialty metals have years of experience offering legal counsel to our clients in that industry as it relates to environmental legal matters. We provide comprehensive representation to steel and specialty metals clients managing a wide range of environmental challenges. Our work in this area includes:

• Represented several stainless steel manufacturers with regard to environmental compliance and remediation requirements, including landfill closure and the negotiation of a multi-media, multi-regional consent order to address multiple facilities in New York, as well as a trust fund to finance those activities.
• Represented a scrap metal recycling facility with national operations in obtaining land use and zoning approvals to establish a new recycling facility/shredder operation on a 14-acre brownfield site in Niagara Falls, NY. Zoning approvals were obtained within 60 days without preparation of an environmental impact statement. The project approvals were subsequently challenged in an Article 78 proceeding in New York State Supreme Court based on the failure of the lead agency to prepare an environmental impact statement under the State Environmental Quality Review Act. Phillips Lytle was successful on a motion to dismiss the proceeding for lack of standing approximately 45 days after litigation commenced.
• Represented one of the world’s largest producers of silicon metal, silicon-based specialty alloys and silicon fume-critical ingredients with regard to land use and environmental permitting matters associated with the restart of operations, which had ceased in 2003. Phillips Lytle obtained determinations. Our client’s facility was grandfathered under existing zoning laws, and the facility’s Title V air permit (which had never been terminated) fully authorized the plant to restart. We also represented one of its subsidiaries with regard to land use and environmental permitting associated with the construction and operation of a brand new 150,000-square-foot, 36-oven manufacturing plant making high-grade/high-purity silicon for use in photovoltaic solar cells.
• We continue to represent steel companies in New York State and Ontario, Canada on a variety of environmental matters, as well as on New York State operation matters.

Bethlehem Steel Corporation was at one time the second-largest steel producer in America. Phillips Lytle began representing Bethlehem Steel’s Lackawanna, NY, plant in 1963. The scope of our work for Bethlehem Steel and its successors was vast and included:

• Defense of lawsuits involving workplace accident claims, asbestos exposure claims and other chemical exposure claims.
• Challenges to real property tax assessments and sewer charges.

Our representation extended to matters which were handled by our Environmental Law Team. This multidisciplinary approach to environmental challenges in the steel and specialty metal industry included:

• Enforcement defense on matters involving air emissions; waste water discharges; storage facilities; asbestos abatement; and hazardous waste treatment, storage and disposal.
• Permitting and regulatory compliance counseling under all major New York State and federal environmental statutes and regulations.
• Government investigations under civil and criminal statutory authority relative to environmental and OSHA matters.
• Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) — also known as “Superfund” — defense in multiparty actions.
• Administrative appeals of permit and enforcement actions/decisions.
• Guidance and advice on exemptions, variances and delistings relative to environmental matters, including delisting of hazardous waste and petitions related thereto.
• Railroad transportation and environmental regulations.
• Permit and administrative order negotiations on matters involving all media at various levels of state, local and federal government.
• Spill response.
• Surprise inspection response.

Phillips Lytle also has expertise in representing steel manufacturers in intellectual property-related matters.

For example, we have represented the only producer in the world of welded high carbon steel screens with respect to their patent and intellectual property work. This company invented a process for welding high carbon steel wires to form very hard, abrasive, resistant screens that are used to size material in the aggregate, slag, coke, recycle and coal markets, as well as for security applications.

Our attorneys provide legal guidance for companies with historical or ongoing matters related to workplace accident claims, asbestos exposure claims and other chemical exposure claims that can arise with workers in the steel industry.

Our Labor and Employment attorneys’ extensive experience also includes employee benefits and executive compensation, employment litigation, workplace fraud and much more. One such representation includes a leading manufacturer and distributor of building products for the industrial, infrastructure and residential markets.

Similar to the guidance we provide with regard to labor and employment, our attorneys are well versed in a wide range of bankruptcy and creditors’ rights issues that can be directly applied to our clients in the steel industry and specialty metals world.

The attorneys on our Bankruptcy and Creditors’ Rights Team represented a leading manufacturer and distributor of building products for the industrial, infrastructure and residential markets in the following areas:

• Defended preference actions.
• Assisted with distressed trade debtors unable to pay debts when due (workouts, forbearance agreements, repayment agreements, collection suits).
• Prepared and filed proofs of claim in bankruptcy cases.
• Negotiated critical vendor status in bankruptcy cases.