Most environmental litigation involves more than one of the disciplines represented in ELA. The senior Principals have worked together on numerous consulting and engineering projects since 1988.In many of these projects, each Principal provides input to a project according to their specialized technical background and experience. This has resulted in a synergistic effect in many of the projects where the whole was clearly more than the sum of the parts.

Recent projects involving two or more of the Principals have shown that this principle of synergism also applies to litigation support and tends to broaden each of the Principal's perspective and ability to support the attorneys' efforts in their practice of environmental law or any other litigation requiring scientific and/or engineering support. This synergism will not ordinarily prevail in a group composed of independent experts and consultants or in many consulting companies today. For recent activities of the ELA Principals, see (here).

The disciplines represented by the Principals of ELA are shown below, and by clicking on any one will lead you to a discussion by an ELA Principal concerning that discipline's typical involvement in litigation, and to the appropriate Principal(s) who would best meet your needs in the respective discipline:

ELA Technical Disciplines

The combined experience of the integrated team of Principals exceeds 200 years in the above disciplines. Three of the Principals have provided litigation support to law firms in the Houston area and throughout the nation since the mid 1970s.

This website was prepared to provide attorneys and their legal staffs with information on the ELA Principals even before any personal contact is made. Curriculum vitae and litigation summaries are provided for review. Additional information is provided on each of the Principal's consulting practices and associated activities. After reviewing the Principal's credentials, the attorney may conclude that one or more of the ELA Principals may be able to assist in one of their cases involving environmental or natural resource issues. The attorney can then initiate contact through e-mail or telephone for detailed discussions. In many cases, the Principal representing the dominant discipline in the case will serve as Principal-in-Charge and will coordinate other ELA Principals selected for input on the case.

The Principals of ELA invite you to browse through this website. To begin, if you already know which Principal you would like to consider for an assignment, click on one of the following Principals or disciplines:

Project management is undertaken in the environmental and mining fields every day of the year but only a few professionals have had sufficient experience to be truly effective and efficient in project management. With ELA Principals, the benefit of many years of experience allows the Principals to conduct investigations, depositions, and court testimony with the attorney's needs in mind, while still practicing good science and engineering.

In long-term litigation, the management of time and expenses are issues of paramount importance. Good record keeping, combined with timely reporting, make projects run better with ELA Principals because we know how to handle both, in ways that benefit the attorney and client.

In complex litigation, assembling appropriate technical information or research data in a timely manner are also critical functions for the consultant. ELA Principals have an advantage over most other technical consultants by having many years of technical experience and familiarity with scientific and engineering literature and associated databases available from the IET library and from the Internet and the World Wide Web. The IET library of technical sources from other websites in the US and overseas is particularly noteworthy as these information sources become more available to the professional in the future.

In managing litigation projects, the many years of experience of the ELA Principals means you, the attorney or legal assistant, have the ability to get to the important technical, as well as business issues, quickly in your case. ELA, therefore, has the technical foundation and experience, the business acumen, the good reputation based on many years of successful professional activities, and the willingness to form and operate within an integrated, multi-disciplinary team for serving the legal profession. As a matter of policy, ELA incorporates technical input and business savvy from associated ELA Principals of complimentary disciplines, resulting in superior litigation support no matter what side: plaintiff, defendant or court-appointed positions.

Effective project management often makes the difference between a good case and a bad one. The Principals of ELA can help you make the best case that is reasonably possible. ELA is listed in the ASTM Directory of Consultants and Expert Witnesses (here).