Partner
Andrew Brought counsels manufacturers, industrial clients, and businesses with complex environmental (EPA) and workplace safety (OSHA) challenges. A dependable and responsive advocate, he offers pragmatic and business-focused solutions to help his clients achieve their goals.
Andrew has extensive experience helping companies with workplace safety incidents and industrial accidents that involve the intersection of health, safety, and environmental regulations and government agencies including OSHA, the EPA, the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Board, and the Justice Department. From complex workplace fatalities and injuries to more routine compliance inspections, Andrew is frequently called upon by a variety of industrial sectors to assist in handling crisis management situations, strategic response, and incident investigations. He has a particular focus on chemical accident prevention programs, including EPA’s Risk Management Plan (RMP) program and OSHA’s Process Safety Management (PSM) program and cases involving chemical releases, fires, explosions, and other catastrophic events at industrial facilities.
In connection with his white-collar criminal and civil practice, Andrew helps his clients manage and reduce liability through his substantial experience in enforcement matters associated with the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, RCRA, EPCRA, OSHA, and related environmental laws. He also assists his clients by conducting compliance audits and internal investigations as appropriate. And in those situations where adversarial disputes become unavoidable, he helps his clients litigate and resolve such matters.
Andrew has significant experience with contaminated site redevelopment and the cleanup and reuse of legacy/Brownfield sites, allowing these properties to be put back to productive use. His work on Superfund, CERCLA, and related RCRA corrective action sites includes national representation of a telecommunications company with a portfolio of sites throughout the United States. He works with property owners, developers, and financial institutions in achieving their transactional goals, through voluntary cleanup programs, the use of institutional controls and related risk-based cleanups, or by managing risk through other mechanisms such as contractual obligations and insurance.
He also helps businesses obtain and comply with operating permits and complex EHS regulations in a variety of industries and sectors including aircraft, chemicals, construction, renewable energy, healthcare, manufacturing, mining, refining and pipelines, retail and shopping centers, and waste management.
Andrew currently serves on the Executive Committee at Spencer Fane, and he has held other leadership positions at the firm including co-chair of the Environment and Energy practice group.
Recent Representation
- Successful resolution of RCRA air emission compliance matter with chemical manufacturing plant through voluntary disclosure through EPA’s audit policy
- Defense of paint manufacturing company in Clean Air Act permitting dispute located in an environmental justice area
- Successful defense of food manufacturing company involving OSHA investigation following a large explosion and fire in industrial dryer
- Individual counsel for maintenance supervisor in a DOJ and EPA criminal investigation for chemical plant release and fire involving CSB investigation and declination of the matter
- Successful defense of multi-year RCRA compliance investigation at LQG facility resulting in no enforcement referral
- Successful defense of specialty chemical manufacturer in workplace fatality involving robotic palletizer with no OSHA enforcement action
- Successful defense of OSHA enforcement case against mechanical, electrical, and plumbing contractor in workplace fatality
- Successful defense of OSHA enforcement case against bridge construction company involving workplace fatality
- Represent lead-acid battery secondary lead smelter and battery manufacturing plants, including air, water, and waste permitting and compliance and enforcement matters
- Represented chemical manufacturing plant in the recycling of a corrosive chemical byproduct through the beneficial reuse of the material, thus, minimizing the generation of hazardous waste from the facility
To review Andrew Brought’s additional relevant experience, please click here.
Professional and community involvement
- Advisory Board Member, The Salvation Army – Kansas & Western Missouri (2018-current)
- Chair, Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association – Environment and Energy Law Section (2018)
- Vice Chair, American Bar Association’s SEER Environmental Enforcement and Crimes Committee (2012-2015)
- Board of Directors for the Air and Waste Management Association, Midwest Chapter (2012-2016)
- Board of Directors for the Highlawn Montessori School (2013-2016)
- Leadership positions at St. John’s United Methodist Church (2009-2017)
Memberships
- American Bar Association
- Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association
Distinctions
- Chambers USA, Environment, 2020-2022
- Missouri & Kansas Super Lawyers, Rising Star, 2013-2014, 2014-2015
- Best Lawyers in America, 2020-2023
Contact Andrew Brought at 816.292.8886 or abrought@spencerfane.com.