Christopher M. Ward

Chris provides counsel on matters of environmental and regulatory compliance, including permitting and reporting under the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and a variety of state environmental laws and regulations. He also assists clients on regulatory compliance issues related to both hazardous and solid waste issues under RCRA and represents clients on permit appeals before the Environmental Review Appeals Commission as well as throughout enforcement proceedings, both administrative and judicial, regarding environmental statutes and regulations.

Chris also serves businesses throughout Ohio in the area of workplace safety, including workers’ compensation administration and legal defense. He appears regularly before the Ohio Industrial Commission, the BWC Adjudicating Committee and the Self-Insured Review Panel, while also representing clients in workers’ compensation appeals in courts of common pleas and appellate courts dealing with injury and occupational diseases as well as matters in mandamus.

Bringing his specialties together, Chris provides review and counsel to companies in business transactions with his due diligence analysis of potential environmental, OSHA and general workplace safety liabilities in sales and acquisitions.

Chris is a member of the Ohio and Columbus Bar Associations, where he is an active member of the respective environmental law and workers’ compensation law committees. He is also active in the Ohio Manufacturers’ Association Environment Committee and the Safety Committee, as well as in the National Workers’ Compensation Defense Network, of which Calfee is the Ohio member firm. On January 1, 2015, Chris became an Ohio State Bar Association Certified Specialist in Workers’ Compensation Law.

Chris joined Calfee in 2003, and currently serves as Co-Chair of Calfee’s LGBTQA affinity group.

Honors & Recognitions

• The Best Lawyers in America^®, Environmental Law, and Litigation - Environmental (2024-2025)
• Excellence in Public Service Award Honoree, Public Interest Law Foundation at The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law (2025)

Education

Ohio State Bar Association Certified Specialist in Workers' Compensation Law, 2015

J.D., The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law, 2003

B.A., summa cum laude, University of Dayton, 2000

Experience

Representative Environmental Experience

• Serve as environmental transactional and compliance counsel for the client, a leading provider of mineral-based and material solutions for the industrial and energy markets, in a complex acquisition of a silica and mining operation. Calfee was specifically involved at all levels in representing the client in the purchase through diligence and compliance counselling. The transaction involved complex environmental and regulatory issues, including wetlands investigation, stormwater, wastewater and air emission compliance issues, environmental risk and liability analysis, and complex land splits and permit transfer and cooperation strategies. Calfee helped guide the client’s legal and executive teams through the complex issues to arrive at liability protection and compliance assurance. (2024)
• Advise the client, a European multinational manufacturing company, related to a construction recovery facility in the Midwest, on compliance issues at its facility. The most recent matter has involved the negotiations of Administrative Orders with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency to resolve multiple complaints filed by a disgruntled former employee. Specifically, Calfee is assisting with the negotiation of Administrative Orders, including an Operational Plan for the facility. The Orders are essential to its continuing operations. (2024)
• Serve as the advising environmental counsel for a group of remediating companies, including a subsidiary of a publicly traded, Fortune 500 coatings client company in the CERCLA Superfund matter wherein the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency changed the remedy for the site after years of remediation and millions of funds spent in cleanup. CERCLA's Superfund achieved an estimated value of $50 billion in PRP commitments for site cleanup and to reimburse the EPA's costs spent cleaning up sites. (2024)
• Serve as environmental diligence counsel on a real estate purchase for the client, a large nonprofit performing arts center. The client is under contract to buy a local bus terminal that has complex environmental and regulatory issues arising from the historical presence of underground petroleum storage tanks, with associated releases and remediation. Calfee’s expertise was necessary to negotiate liability protection from the historical USTs in the transaction documents and arrange, review and analyze environmental assessment reports used to investigate the property and gain legal defenses related to federal and state statutes allocated contamination liability. (2024)
• Advised the client, a domestic company with dozens of manufactured home communities across multiple states, in relation to three manufactured home communities in the Midwest, on compliance issues at these facilities. The current matter has involved the negotiation of Administrative Orders from the state Environmental Protection Agency to resolve multiple violations of pollution discharge permits. Specifically, Calfee is involved in the negotiation of Administrative Orders, counseling on return to compliance, and negotiation of a potential civil penalty for the violations. (2024)
• Serve as lead environmental litigation counsel to one of the nation’s largest privately owned residential and commercial waste and recycling companies in environmental administrative proceedings in challenge to continued operations of the landfill through the verified complaint process. The remedy sought in the administrative appeal was a shutdown of the client’s landfill, so defense against appeal is critical to the client’s ongoing operations. (2024)
• Serve as the lead environmental defense counsel for the subsidiary of a publicly traded, Fortune 500 coatings client company in a matter involving a demand by an East Coast regulatory authority and potentially responsible parties in a CERCLA matter for alleged PFAS contamination of soil at a composting site where the client delivered waste. (2024)
• Serve as the lead environmental litigation counsel for a globally recognized designer and manufacturer. This client was sued in federal court over an alleged discharge of per- and polyfluoroalkyl (PFAS) substances from its facility. This is a federal class action suit against multiple entities in the carpet industry for alleged PFAS contamination of drinking water, with remedy sought being a proportionate share of replacing a local land application system from process water discharge. (2024)
• Serve as lead environmental litigation counsel to one of the nation’s largest privately owned residential and commercial waste and recycling companies in a challenge to a permit issued to the client for an increase to the daily waste allowance to receive at the client’s landfill. (2024)

Workers’ Compensation Experience 

• Successfully defending an Ohio corporation against a potential six-figure VSSR award dealing with issues of “proper employer” and alleged violation of Ohio safety regulations.
• Represents businesses in the interstate trucking industry against attempts at seeking allowed Ohio workers’ and unemployment compensation from independent contractor drivers seeking status as “employees.”
• Successfully aided client in petitioning Ohio BWC to withdraw its demand for hundreds of thousands in disability fund (DWRF) assessments against an Ohio business that should have remained with the prior business owner.

Professional & Community

• Ohio State Bar Association Environmental Law Committee and Workers' Compensation Law Committee, Member
• Columbus Bar Association Environmental Law Committee and Workers' Compensation Law Committee, Member
• Ohio Manufacturers’ Association Environment Committee and Safety Committee, Member
• National Workers’ Compensation Defense Network, Member