Thomas Clarke

Thomas H. Clarke, Jr., joined RMKB in 1991 and is Chair of the firm’s Environmental Practice Group. He is AV rated by Martindale Hubble and has been listed for several years in Northern California’s SuperLawyers. His blog can be read at http://eartotheground.typepad.com/. Mr. Clarke has over 30 years of experience with virtually all aspects of environmental counseling and litigation. He has represented, among others, major industrial and service companies, commercial and residential property owners, operators, and developers, trucking companies, and financial institutions. Mr. Clarke’s environmental practice encompasses both state and federal litigation and regulatory actions involving CERCLA, RCRA, CEQA, Porter-Cologne Act, Proposition 65, underground storage tanks, toxic torts, hazardous wastes and substances, environmental nuisance and trespass, environmental assessments and taxes, landfill permitting and closures, and transactional matters pertaining to real property sales and development. Mr. Clarke also represents companies in unfair business practice, false advertising, and Consumer Legal Remedy Act litigation. Mr. Clarke has been published extensively in various trade and legal journals, including U.S. Business Litigation, For the Defense, Mortgage Banking, The REIT Report, Facility Management Journal, Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal, California Real Estate Journal, The National Law Journal, and the Daily Journal. He has been quoted in a number of daily and business publications, such as The Wall Street Journal Online, East Bay Business Times, Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal, San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco Daily Journal, among others, and has lectured on environmental and toxic tort matters, constitutional law, data privacy, and business risk, including at the Royal Institute of International Affairs. Prior to joining RMKB, Mr. Clarke served as Principal Consultant (Chief of Staff) to the Assembly Committee on Criminal Justice from 1973 through 1976, and from 1977 through 1980, he worked for President Carter in the Executive Office of the President, Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ). Mr. Clarke obtained his B.A. degree from the University of California at Berkeley in 1967, J.D. from Boalt Hall School of Law in 1970, and M.S. degree in Environmental Science from George Washington University in 1979.