WAMS Mediator Certification: 1989

• Environmental
• Insurance Coverage
• Land Use
• Water Quality & Permitting Disputes
• Professional Negligence

Accomplishments:

Bill Joyce is a leading environmental attorney and mediator in the Pacific Northwest and has helped people find solutions to environmental problems since 1985. His practice includes environmental cost recovery, complex soil, groundwater and sediment cleanups, contaminated real property transactions and permit compliance. Mr. Joyce has represented large and small companies, public entities and individuals in state MTCA and federal CERCLA matters and a broad range of other environmental matters.

Mr. Joyce has participated in mediation as an attorney since 1986 and has been a WAMS mediator since 1989. He has lectured on environmental mediation at various law schools and authored the environmental mediation section of the King County Bar Association's Washington Lawyers Practice Manual. Mr. Joyce has successfully mediated several hundred environmental cleanup and environmental insurance coverage cases, often combining coverage disputes with underlying site cleanup issues. His recent experience also includes a broad range of insurance coverage disputes, both within and outside the environmental arena.

Sample recent mediation subjects include: various professional negligence matters involving contractors, consultants and engineers; complex D&O, E&O and advertising injury coverage disputes; insurance coverage dispute involving paper mill operations in Alaska; public transit construction dispute involving contract, cleanup, insurance coverage and professional negligence issues; numerous manufacturing facility cleanups involving insurance coverage allocation and CERCLA/MTCA claims; various complicated environmental disputes involving estates, neighbors and family members; cost allocation, natural resource damage claims and insurance coverage issues associated with the Commencement Bay Superfund Site; bankruptcy estimation for smelter emissions cleanup and NRD issues; permitting and NEPA litigation involving a major gold mining facility in Eastern Washington; Clean Water Act violation and MTCA cases, including participation by state and federal regulatory agencies, the United States Department of Justice and the Washington State Attorney General’s office; construction defect litigation between developers, residents and contractors; regional TCE contamination case involving public entity, manufacturer, and insurance carriers; and cost allocation for major shipyard cleanup, including sediment impacts. In the last several years the settlement value of individual mediations has ranged from $50,000 to more than $200,000,000.

Education:

• USA&M Specialized Environmental and Land Use Dispute Resolution Training, 1990
• USA&M Mediator Training, 1989
• University of Washington School of Law, JD, 1985
• University of Oregon, BA, 1981

Affiliations:

• Washington Arbitration & Mediation Service
• NW Environmental Claims Association, past Chair
• Association of NW Environmental Professionals, past General Counsel