Diana E. Neeves focuses her practice on environmental, energy, land use, and telecommunications litigation and regulatory compliance. Her litigation experience includes disputes related to chemical contamination and clean-up, federal and state environmental enforcement actions, and local zoning appeals. She works with clients on the clean-up of contaminated properties and helps clients evaluate, manage, and limit environmental risk associated with business and property transactions. She also provides guidance to clients seeking local zoning approvals.
Litigation
Diane handles litigation related to environmental and land use matters. She represents clients in disputes brought under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) and handles litigation involving asbestos contamination and exposure. Her litigation experience involves federal and state environmental enforcement actions and lawsuits between private parties.
Diane also helps defend municipalities nationwide in cases involving the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), and she regularly writes for the firm’s blog on the topic, RLUIPA Defense.
Environment and Energy
Diane regularly works with clients on the clean-up of contaminated properties, including Superfund sites. She assists clients with federal and state administrative compliance, including environmental remediation. She helps represent a client who owns property which was contaminated by a previous owner and has been working with the state environmental agency to coordinate site clean-up.
Diane is part of the firm’s Utilities Group, which serves utility and energy clients on regulatory and environmental matters. She provides a range of transactional and compliance services. She helps clients navigate all local, state and federal permitting requirements, and works to ensure they are in compliance with all regulations. She has recently been working with clients on energy and conservation matters in hearings before the New York State Public Service Commission.
Land Use
Diane provides guidance to clients seeking local zoning approvals. She counsels them on meeting requirements for land development and securing necessary municipal and state permits to do so.
Pro Bono
She is one of several Robinson+Cole attorneys involved in a pro bono project to combat poaching and illegal wildlife trafficking in Namibia, Africa by strengthening the country’s legislative framework. During law school, as part of the New York State Pro Bono Scholars Program, Diane was a Pro Bono Scholar in the Criminal Law Special Litigation Unit of the Legal Aid Society.
Prior to joining Robinson+Cole, Diane was a judicial honors extern for U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain of the United States District Court, Southern District of New York. She also worked as a legal intern for an organization focused on water quality and related issues. She received a fellowship grant to provide nonprofit environmental legal services.
