Environmental Law

The Challenge
Natural resources are becoming scarcer. Traditionally, the Austrian legal system has always provided far-reaching, detailed legislation pertaining to the environment. These legal provisions affect both public institutions, which have to deal with environmental protection issues in the broadest sense, as well as private companies in all sectors and regions. Environmental aspects play an important role in company takeovers – for example in due diligences and in the specification of relevant risks when drawing up contracts – as well as in project development or in authorisation procedures for industrial plants and other facilities. A particular challenge is presented by the fact that environmentally relevant legislation is distributed throughout a considerable number of legal fields, not to mention the numerous provisions included under the EU legal regime.

Our Expertise
Over the years, fwp has established a high reputation as a firm specialising in the field of envi-ronmental law. We have successfully supported numerous Austrian industrial enterprises in dealing with environmental issues. We also provide legal advice in the public sector, assisting, for example, public authorities with the implementation of environmentally relevant EU directives as well as with the drafting of domestic legislation. In our daily practice we not only deal with environmental due diligences but also prepare legal opinions and studies assessing scopes of action under environmental law. In addition to successfully handling authorisation procedures under construction and engineering law and providing comprehensive consulting services on the environmental aspects of project development, we also carry out various spe-cial assignments for the public sector (e.g. assessing the scope for consideration of envi-ronmental aspects in awarding public contracts).

Your Team
The fwp partners responsible for the field of environmental law are Michael Hecht and Markus Kajaba. They and the members of their team are the authors of numerous legal publications and are regular speakers on issues of environmental law. As highly-reputed experts of long standing in the field, they combine legal expertise with many years of practical experience and a network of valuable contacts.