Richard Lane White
485 Massachusetts Avenue, Suite 300
Cambridge, MA 02139
USA
Phone: 617-294-9737
Fax: 617-933-7617
Email: rwhite@gnarusllc.com
SUMMARY
Richard has more than two decades of experience consulting to private clients on a range of environmental and insurance coverage issues. He is an expert on the allocation of costs at hazardous waste sites, as well as the evaluation and analysis of liability, allocation and related issues faced by parties at Superfund sites.
He served as a neutral allocation consultant, an allocation expert for contribution cases and he has directed a number of allocation engagements on behalf of clients.
Richard is a frequent contributor to environmental journals where he discusses a variety of cost allocation issues. He earned a Master of Public Policy degree from Harvard University.
Prior to joining Gnarus, Richard worked in the environment and insurance claims groups at LECG, PA Consulting Group and Putnam, Hayes & Bartlett, Inc.
REPRESENTATIVE PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Cost Allocation at Superfund and Hazardous Waste Sites
Mr. White has served as a neutral allocation consultant and as an expert in contribution suits. He has worked on sites in every region of the country and on a range of sites (e.g., landfills, groundwater plumes, battery breaking operations, manufactured gas operations, tolling operations, pesticide plants, mining operations, and incinerator sites).
- For a coalition of industrial parties at the Beacon Heights landfill (Region I), he has served as the neutral allocation consultant and the allocation expert for the contribution suit (B.F. Goodrich v. Murtha) where he recently provided expert testimony on cost allocation issues. As part of his analysis, he has prepared a multi-volume allocation report, assisted litigation counsel with its cash-out settlement offers. The Murtha suit involved more than 300 municipal, commercial and industrial waste generators.
- For the industrial parties at the Chemical Control Corporation site (Region 2), he served as the neutral allocation consultant. He worked with the committee on its federal settlement and internal de minimis buyout proposal and conducted an audit of the EPA's waste-in list to determine whether it could be used as a basis for adding additional volumetric data supplied by the PRPs. As a result of his work, an additional 50 parties and new sources of documents were identified.
- For the industrial parties at Operating Industries, Inc. landfill (Region 9), he managed the team that developed a waste-in list and conducted a separate analysis of the waste streams generated by a number of municipalities as a part of a third-party contribution suit (Transportation Leasing v. Caltrans). He worked closely with counsel on the de minimis settlement negotiations.
- For a private party he directed the allocation analysis at a major Region III groundwater NPL site in a contribution case with cleanup costs exceeding more than $125 million.
- On behalf of ASARCO LLC he has provided testimony on cost allocation issues at many of the sites in the ASARCO Bankruptcy proceeding.
- He has been reviewed and approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to serve as an allocation expert in the on-going EPA Allocation Pilot project.
Environmental Cost Estimation
Mr. White frequently works with other LECG experts whose primary role is the development of future
cost estimates at environmental sites. Mr. White frequently assists those experts with related economic,
finance and modeling issues.
In the ASARCO bankruptcy, for example, Mr. White provided expert testimony on the appropriateness and application of probabilistic cost analysis and monte carlo simulation modeling, as well as related issues as to timing and discounting, that were being employed by another LECG expert whose role was to forecast future environmental liabilities.
Natural Resource Damages
Mr. White has worked on the evaluation and development of natural resource damage claims. In the
ASARCO bankruptcy, for example, he served as ASARCO’s expert on NRD where he evaluated NRD
claims at numerous sites and provided deposition and trial testimony on potential NRD claims.
Environmental and Products Liability Insurance Coverage
Mr. White’s work focuses on the development of allocation models to evaluate complex multi-year,
multi-policy insurance coverage programs. He has worked on the allocation of asbestos, environmental,
silicone breast implant and other product liability claims.
- For a Fortune 100 client he has developed the allocation of more than $1 billion in costs at more than 45 sites across 15 states among 60 insurance carriers. He is currently working with the client team on settlement, in advance of trial where he is expected to present testimony on allocation.
- For a variety of clients involved in potential litigation with their insurance carriers, he has evaluated site remediation issues, including cleanup technologies and allocation issues, at a number of NPL sites in Regions V and VI.
- For a major asbestos products manufacturer, he has evaluated the potential global liability that the company faces from current and future asbestos claims in order to estimate the future claims that party might make against its primary insurance policies, and modeled exhaustion of those policies in preparation for settlement with insurance carriers.
- For a major defense contractor, he managed the project team that developed the cost estimates and allocation analysis for their multi-site environmental insurance claim. He also provided testimony on an allocation of environmental liability claims to various insurance carriers.
- For a Fortune 100 company, he directed the analysis for estimating and allocating claims in a major products liability case where the manufacturer sought recovery from its insurers. This work involved estimating the size of the product implant pool, payouts to claimants and allocation of costs incurred to various insurance carriers. As part of this work, he also evaluated asbestos, environmental, and other products claims for purposes of estimating future costs and allocation of these costs to responding carriers. He provided testimony on the allocation at deposition and trial.
- For a domestic subsidiary of a multi-national corporation, he evaluated the allocation of site costs at three New Jersey facilities and worked with the trial team to develop its allocation methodology and its responses to insurers arguments and analysis from a special insurance master retained by the court.
EDUCATION
B.A. (Economics, History, Political Science), Willamette University, 1983
M.P.P., Harvard University, 1985
PRESENT POSITION
GNARUS ADVISORS, LLC, Director, 2009 to Present
PREVIOUS POSITIONS
LECG, LLC, Cambridge, MA, 2001 – 2009
Director
PA Consulting Group (successor to PHB Hagler Bailly), Cambridge, MA, 2000–2001
Member, Management Group
PHB Hagler Bailly (successor to Putnam, Hayes & Bartlett), Cambridge, MA, 1997–2000
Senior Vice President
Putnam, Hayes & Bartlett, Inc., Cambridge, MA, 1987–1997
Director
