Partner, Chair Environmental Law Practice
Group
Garfunkel, Wild & Travis, P.C.
A Legal Career Focused on Environmental Protection …
Suzanne M. Avena, ’94 is Chair of the Environmental Practice Group
at Garfunkel Wild and Travis P.C. and a member of the firm’s
Finance and Real Estate Practice Group, Compliance Practice Group,
as well as Managing Editor of the firm’s Environmental
Bulletin.
Ms. Avena always knew that she wanted to be an attorney, even as a
youngster working in her grandfather’s florist shop, where she
picked up her grandfather’s work ethic, and love of nature and the
outdoors and which she has successfully melded into a thriving
environmental law practice. Committed to “getting the word
out” about air, land and water quality, and the associated
clean-up/compliance issues, Ms. Avena is frequently published in
trade and legal publications and is a sought after speaker for
environmental and real estate trade groups, as well as business
groups. Having been published so often, Ms. Avena “knows I
have a book inside of me and will someday have to sit down and
actually write it.”
Ms. Avena counsels a myriad of clients drawn from a diverse
background on a range of real estate issues as they pertain to
environmental litigation and hazardous waste clean-up, litigation
related to toxic substances, remediation, insurance and cost
recovery actions. She has particular expertise in structuring
contaminated (Brownfield) commercial property transactions,
including negotiating cleanup agreements, overseeing remediation
contractors, drafting related contracts, facilitating development
permits and forging deal-specific environmental insurance
policies.
If she were counseling law students to enter the job market, Ms
Avena noted, “Be prepared to get experience early in your career by
paying your dues and seeking out a variety of projects. You
need to be realistic about the job of your dreams – it may be a few
positions away. There is no substitute for hard work.
Network by bringing real value to the table to all individuals that
you meet.”
Prior to her tenure at Garfunkel Wild & Travis P.C., Ms. Avena
was with the New York Environmental Practice at Paul Hastings
Janofsky & Walker, LLP. Before that, she was an attorney at AIG
Environmental, serving as Director of the Contaminated Property
Group. Prior to AIG, Ms. Avena was Regional Director of the
Environmental Risk Consulting Practice at Sedgwick (now Marsh).
During law school, Ms. Avena clerked at the NYS Department of
Environmental Conservation in Stony Brook, Long Island and the
Environmental Crimes Unit of the Suffolk County District.