Christopher M. Ward

Chris provides counsel on matters of environmental and regulatory compliance, including permitting and reporting under the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and a variety of state environmental laws and regulations. He also assists clients on regulatory compliance issues related to both hazardous and solid waste issues under RCRA and represents clients on permit appeals before the Environmental Review Appeals Commission as well as throughout enforcement proceedings, both administrative and judicial, regarding environmental statutes and regulations.

Chris also serves businesses throughout Ohio in the area of workplace safety, including workers’ compensation administration and legal defense. He appears regularly before the Ohio Industrial Commission, the BWC Adjudicating Committee and the Self-Insured Review Panel, while also representing clients in workers’ compensation appeals in courts of common pleas and appellate courts dealing with injury and occupational diseases as well as matters in mandamus.

Bringing his specialties together, Chris provides review and counsel to companies in business transactions with his due diligence analysis of potential environmental, OSHA and general workplace safety liabilities in sales and acquisitions.

Chris is a member of the Ohio and Columbus Bar Associations, where he is an active member of the respective environmental law and workers’ compensation law committees. He is also active in the Ohio Manufacturers’ Association Environment Committee and the Safety Committee, as well as in the National Workers’ Compensation Defense Network, of which Calfee is the Ohio member firm. On January 1, 2015, Chris became an Ohio State Bar Association Certified Specialist in Workers’ Compensation Law.

Chris joined Calfee in 2003 and currently serves as Co-Chair of Calfee’s LGBTQA affinity group.

Honors & Recognitions

• The Best Lawyers in America^®, Environmental Law, and Litigation - Environmental (2024-2025)

Education

Ohio State Bar Association Certified Specialist in Workers' Compensation Law, 2015

J.D., The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law, 2003

B.A., summa cum laude, University of Dayton, 2000

Experience

Environmental Experience

• Advised a European multinational manufacturing company, on compliance issues at its facility. The most recent matter has involved the negotiations of Administrative Orders with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.
• Serving as the advising Environmental counsel for a group of remediating companies including a subsidiary of a publicly traded, Fortune 500 manufacturing client company in a CERCLA Superfund matter wherein the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency changed the remedy for the site after years of remediation and millions of funds spent in cleanup.
• Serving as the advising administrative environmental defense counsel for a manufacturer engaged in a consent decree and closure and post-closure remediation of soil and groundwater related to a historical underground storage tank. The consent decree requires the proper remediation, closure, and post-closure work done to avoid civil and stipulated penalties.
• Representing a manufacturing client in an Environmental due diligence transactional matter involving the client company’s acquisition by a family investment firm. The representation involved the asset sale of the 100-year-old family owned company client and the facility. The client relied on the due diligence to complete the end of generational ownership needed for the successful sale of the company in 2023.
• Serving as the lead Environmental Defense Counsel for the subsidiary of a publicly traded Fortune 500 manufacturing client in a matter involving a demand by the Massachusetts regulatory authority and potentially responsible parties in a CERCLA matter for alleged PFAS contamination of soil at a composting site where the client delivered waste.
• Serving as lead Environmental Litigation counsel to a waste and recycling company in environmental administrative proceedings in a challenge to continued operations of the landfill through the verified complaint process. The remedy sought in the administrative appeal was a shutdown of the client’s landfill, so defense against appeal is critical to the client’s ongoing operations.
• Serving as lead Environmental Litigation Counsel to a waste and recycling company in a challenge to a permit issued to the client for an increase to the daily waste allowance to receive at the client’s landfill.
• Serving as the lead Environmental Litigation counsel for a global manufacturing company. This client was sued in federal court over an alleged discharge of per- and polyfluoroalkyl (PFAS) substances from its facility. This is a federal class action suit against multiple entities for alleged PFAS contamination of drinking water, with the remedy sought being a proportionate share of replacing a local land application system from process water discharge.
• Represented corporations, municipalities and villages in administrative appeals pending before the Ohio Environmental Review Appeals Commission involving challenges to their NPDES permits, hazardous waste closure plans, Title V permits and air permits to install issued by Ohio EPA and extensive permit negotiations in the settlement and dismissal of the appeals.
• Successfully defended and resolved environmental enforcement actions for public and private entities on various air and water issues.
• Represents private and public entities seeking permits under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act and Ohio’s isolated wetlands program.
• Aided clients in environmental due diligence and contract negotiation in several successful business transactions.

Workers’ Compensation Experience 

• Successfully defending an Ohio corporation against a potential six-figure VSSR award dealing with issues of “proper employer” and alleged violation of Ohio safety regulations.
• Represents businesses in the interstate trucking industry against attempts at seeking allowed Ohio workers’ and unemployment compensation from independent contractor drivers seeking status as “employees.”
• Successfully aided client in petitioning Ohio BWC to withdraw its demand for hundreds of thousands in disability fund (DWRF) assessments against an Ohio business that should have remained with the prior business owner.

Professional & Community

• Ohio State Bar Association Environmental Law Committee and Workers' Compensation Law Committee, Member
• Columbus Bar Association Environmental Law Committee and Workers' Compensation Law Committee, Member
• Ohio Manufacturers’ Association Environment Committee and Safety Committee, Member
• National Workers’ Compensation Defense Network, Member