With 20 years of experience in environmental and natural resources law, John Burnside knows that insights leading to solutions come from knowledge, study, perseverance and communication. John resolves complex environmental regulatory and water resource issues and disputes for mining and industrial sector clients using his deep understanding of the law, environmental science, and his clients’ legal, business, and financial objectives.
John's experience includes Superfund cost recovery and defense, water resources adjudication, water quality permitting and enforcement, environmental insurance coverage placement and claims, environmental forensics, toxic tort defense and contractual allocation of environmental liabilities. John regularly appears before the Special Water Master to defend our clients' water rights in Arizona's general stream adjudications. In addition, he has addressed corporate transactions involving extensive environmental due diligence and has ushered the transacting parties through the transfer of environmental permits and authorizations to the satisfaction of regulatory authorities.
John understands the importance of maintaining a steady focus on his clients’ legal and business objectives when collaborating with technical consultants in water resources, environmental regulatory and litigation matters. Working alongside scientists and engineers, John has counseled clients in regulatory strategies for environmental remediation and closure projects and has addressed a variety of permitting and compliance challenges as well as litigation. He has overseen the development of persuasive expert testimony and is adept at managing the generation, storage, and discovery of technical data and communications to preserve applicable privileges for the benefit of his clients’ information security.
Prior to private practice, John served as a law clerk with the Arizona Supreme Court and the Arizona Court of Appeals. While attending law school, he was an articles editor for the Arizona State Law Journal and graduated magna cum laude, ranking second in his class. He was recognized by the State Bar of Arizona for placing among the top three highest scores on the July 1997 bar exam.
