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Businesses joining the Chicago Climate Exchange and imposing caps on their carbon emissions, companies hiring sustainability officers and implementing “green” practices and banks wanting to learn how to invest in wind-energy projects are signs of a changing environment that also is affecting the legal profession.

In his more than 20 years of practicing environmental law, attorney Paul Horvath said he has seen a shift from litigation and cost-recovery work to helping businesses become proactive about protecting the environment. “Now it seems like environmental law has evolved to the issue of sustainability rather than making up for past mistakes,” he said.

In response to these situations and a growing number of clients asking questions related to green issues, Horvath’s firm, Dickinson, Mackaman, Tyler & Hagen P.C., has started the Green Business & Sustainability Law Group. Claimed to be the first of its kind in Iowa, the group is dealing with issues such as wind-farm regulations, carbon credits and green building practices that involve input from several traditional law areas, including real estate, construction, banking, commodities and energy.

“What we are saying is these are the market realties,” said Lawrence James Jr., one of about 10 attorneys who make up the group. “We acknowledge them, and we’re trying to share them with our clients so that they can take advantage of these new opportunities.”

Neil Hamilton, a professor at Drake University School of Law, said he’s seen an increase in demand for lawyers that have expertise in areas such as wind energy and that larger firms have attorneys who are working on these new issues. “What the Dickinson firm appears to have done is much more intentionally recognize it as a practice area,” he said, “and are seizing the opportunity to allocate resources and use that as a way to show how they can serve clients on these issues.”

Though the concept of a green practice group is new to Iowa, it has been taking off nationlly. St. Louis-based Gallop, Johnson & Neuman started a green business practice and former New York Gov. George Pataki is part of a climate-change group at Chadbourne & Parke LLP.

James said it tends to be larger firms or small California firms focused only on this niche market that are starting to emerge.

The concept

At corporate law practice meetings last summer, the attorneys at Dickinson kept mentioning green or sustainability issues they were dealing with in their individual practices. Though the lawyers came from different areas of law, this common thread led attorney Jeffrey Andersen to take charge in forming the Green Business & Sustainability Law Group, which now encompasses about one-third of the firm’s attorneys. The group began early this year and went public two weeks ago. So far, the firm has marketed this new service to its existing clients only, but expects the change could lead to new business as well.

“We saw environmental concerns infiltrating those traditional areas, and it creates issues that each of those prior distinct areas have as common issues,” Andersen said. “The Green & Sustainability practice group really pools those resources together instead of having people in individual practice groups.”

Lately the issues have involved transactional work, such as drawing up contracts, rather than litigation, but the attorneys wonder if conflicts will arise as the green trend catches on more in Central Iowa and the government passes more mandates to support environmental initiatives.

Andersen’s work has focused on drafting contracts for selling and trading carbon credits, which is rooted in his previous work in commodities.

James, who specializes in real estate law, is dealing with many building projects that are going for a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) designation from the U.S. Green Building Council. This has raised new questions, such as who is responsible if a building is designed to be green but doesn’t achieve a certain energy-efficiency standard.

“The role of an attorney in the green building process,” he said, “is the role attorneys have in a lot of processes – making sure their clients understand what the rules are and keep their clients out of possible litigation.

“It’s exciting. In a sense, there are lots of things you draw on from just the practice. You’re not starting from scratch, but at the same time, because there haven’t been that many LEED-certified projects in Iowa, there haven’t been these conflicts they’ve seen in other states. It will be interesting as more and more of this type of development takes place.”

But the area of wind energy is perhaps where the most diverse resources are needed as the firm gets into issues such as how to compensate landowners for allowing wind turbines to be installed on their properties or how to navigate the permitting process, especially when many counties don’t have zoning ordinances that take into account wind turbine towers. Dickinson even was involved in drafting legislation that would allow community bankers to receive production tax credits and other measures that would encourage bankers to finance wind projects.

“All these things really tie together,” James said, “and we see this as a great opportunity for our clients, if they’re informed about what the rules are, that they can take advantage of these things and really grow their businesses, especially in these tough economic times.”

Implementing change

When Dickinson’s attorneys and support staff walked into work on the first of the month, they found a leaf with a treat on their desk. This was a fun reminder that the firm was starting a new era focused on becoming more green within its practice, not just working with clients who were interested in these issues.

The main focus is on reducing the 1.7 million sheets of paper Dickinson uses each year by 20 percent in the first year. The firm has encouraged double-sided printing or e-mailing internal documents, and will purchase 30 percent recycled content paper. As part of this effort, it has joined the American Bar Association-Environmental Protection Agency Law Office Climate Challenge, becoming one of only two firms with offices in Iowa on the list.

Dickinson also is looking at other changes, such as offering a stipend for taking the bus and using reusable materials in the break room.

In addition, the firm has become an advocate for green issues, such as becoming the Des Moines host for the Renewable Energy Seminar and Teleconference series. It also is presenting a three-part webinar series on wind-energy development for Iowa bankers and a seminar to real estate professionals and attorneys on LEED certification and potential liability issues in green development.

“I think we all have an intellectual curiosity about these sort of issues,” Horvath said, “and find them both challenging as well as being able to do good.”