July 24, 2003

2003 Summer School Lecture Series: Chemical Regulation

The Environmental Law Institute was pleased to organize a series of free lectures in Washington, DC, to provide an introduction to the legal foundations of environmental protection in the United States. Summer law clerks, interns, and others who wanted to acquire a working knowledge of the basics were invited to attend. Each presentation was made by an experienced practitioner and provided an overview of the history, main provisions, and essential vocabulary of the specific statute.

David B. Fischer (Chlorine Chemistry Council, American Chemistry Council) guided the audience through the thicket of federal statutes and regulatory agencies overseeing chemical product formulation, manufacture, and use.

As Managing Counsel for the Chlorine Chemistry Council® (CCC), a business council of the American Chemistry Council, Mr. Fischer has appeared as counsel in regulatory matters before the US EPA, ATSDR, NTP, and FDA. Those matters have run the gamut, including dioxin, disinfection by-products, vinyl, and other products and byproducts of chlorine manufacture. He was the lead in-house counsel in the chloro-form litigation before the Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit (Chlorine Chemistry Council v. EPA, 206 F.3d 1286, D.C. Cir. 2000). Mr. Fischer serves as Chair of CCC’s Legal Advisory Group, composed of in-house chemical company lawyers; Counsel to CCC’s Research Foundation for Health and Environmental Effects®; and adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Maryland School of Law.