Meaghan Colligan Hembree

Meaghan Colligan Hembree is a partner in DLA Piper's Environmental practice based in Washington, DC. She represents companies in high-stakes environmental and chemical litigation, with a particular focus on PFAS litigation and greenwashing and recyclability litigation. Her practice also encompasses complex environmental, health and safety regulation, including waste, packaging, and product-related requirements, environmental enforcement, crisis response, and enterprise-wide environmental risk assessment. Clients rely on Meaghan when environmental issues create significant litigation, regulatory, operational, financial, and reputational risk, and when practical business strategy is as important as the legal response.

PFAS litigation and risk across the business lifecycle. Meaghan has significant experience advising companies on PFAS litigation and risk across the business lifecycle. Her work follows a PFAS issue from start to finish, from product and supply-chain questions and legacy contamination that requires remediation to regulatory reporting, investigations, and transactional risk. She helps companies defend PFAS claims and assess potential exposure while they navigate evolving federal and state regulations. She also helps clients understand how historical PFAS use and reporting can affect litigation, regulatory enforcement, transactions, and corporate decision-making.

Greenwashing and recyclability litigation. Meaghan represents and advises companies facing greenwashing and recyclability litigation, as well as regulatory risk involving sustainability, recyclability, and other environmental benefit claims about products and companies. Drawing on her experience at the intersection of litigation, environmental regulation, and product stewardship, she helps companies evaluate not only whether their environmental claims satisfy evolving legal requirements, but also how regulators, consumers, competitors, and other stakeholders may challenge those claims.

Enterprise-wide environmental risk assessment and strategic counseling. Meaghan helps companies identify and assess environmental and chemical risks across their businesses, including risks arising from products and supply chains, historical operations and contamination, regulatory requirements, litigation and enforcement, transactions, and emerging legal frameworks. She works with executives, boards, and cross-functional teams to understand how those risks intersect and to develop practical strategies for addressing them before they become larger legal or business problems.

Environmental, health and safety incidents and crisis response. As a trusted advisor on environmental, health and safety matters, Meaghan helps companies navigate high-profile incidents and operational challenges that attract regulatory scrutiny and public attention, including chemical releases, fires and explosions, waste-management issues, environmental contamination, operational failures, and product-related risks. In those critical moments, she works closely with executives, boards, technical consultants, and cross-functional teams to assess risk and respond to regulators. She also helps clients manage potential litigation and enforcement while maintaining operational continuity and protecting long-term business objectives.

Emerging environmental regulation, products, waste, and the circular economy. Meaghan's broader regulatory practice focuses on emerging legal frameworks affecting chemicals, products, packaging, and waste. Much of that work centers on circular economy initiatives, including Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) programs, plastics legislation, and recycled content requirements, as well as the environmental marketing claims that often accompany them. She works with clients across a wide range of industries, from consumer products, food and beverage, and fashion and apparel to manufacturing, transportation, energy, and real estate development, helping them anticipate regulatory developments and develop practical strategies for managing compliance, litigation, and enforcement risk.

Transactions, contaminated properties, and complex remediation. Meaghan also advises clients on environmental liabilities associated with transactions, contaminated properties, and complex remediation matters. She handles Superfund and brownfield matters and conducts the environmental due diligence and risk assessments that support acquisitions, investments, redevelopment projects, and corporate restructurings. She is known for translating complex technical and legal issues into practical business considerations that inform executive and board-level decision-making.

As environmental lead for DLA Piper's Environmental and Natural Disasters Task Force, Meaghan collaborates with multidisciplinary teams across the firm to develop coordinated strategies that address the full range of environmental, operational, litigation, and reputational risk. A frequent speaker and author, she addresses PFAS and environmental and chemical litigation, greenwashing and recyclability litigation, environmental, health and safety regulation, waste and the circular economy, environmental enforcement and crisis management, and product stewardship, as well as emerging environmental policy developments.