Experience & Staffing

Jennifer NijmanSusan Franzetti, and Lynn Grayson have been practicing environmental law since the 1980s. Susan Brice started practicing in the 1990s. They have experience in solving the vast array of environmental issues facing clients, including agency enforcement, private party litigation, permitting, compliance and contaminated property remediation and transfer. Their partner, Kristen Gale, was an Assistant Attorney General in the Environmental Bureau of the Illinois Attorney General’s Office, where she represented the State of Illinois in environmental enforcement matters. Vince Angermeier joined the firm in 2014 after working in the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals and as a summer clerk at the Department of Justice’s Environmental Division. Both Ms. Gale and Mr. Angermeier formerly worked as environmental consultants prior to law school. Genevieve J. Essig came to Nijman Franzetti LLP from an environmental practice at a large Chicago firm, and  Molly Snittjer joined the firm in 2019 after working at the Environmental Bureau of the Illinois Attorney General’s Office.

The specialized nature of our firm means we do not overstaff our cases. Our many years of experience in environmental law means that we have a vast array of combined knowledge to address most environmental issues facing our clients. In those few circumstances when an issue arises outside of our experience, we will tell the client; and if we cannot effectively help, we will find another lawyer who can assist.

When projects warrant additional resources, we work with experienced attorneys on a contract basis and/or co-counsel with other firms. We work seamlessly with attorneys of the client’s choosing or with attorneys we know and trust based on our combined sixty years of practice within the legal community. We will always discuss staffing arrangements with the client first and it is subject to the client’s prior approval. We forge cooperative legal relationships with other law firms to provide quality service without duplication of effort.

We are active members of the Environmental Law Network, which gives us access to more than 250 environmental attorneys throughout North and South America, Canada and Mexico. http://elnonline.com/. When matters involve issues outside the environmental arena, we turn to attorneys in the International Network of Boutique Law Firms, a network of small law firms in a variety of practice areas across the US and Canada. http://www.inblf.com/.

One of the key reasons we formed our boutique, women-owned environmental firm in 2008 was to be in a position to charge clients reasonable hourly rates. We have sophisticated technology that allows us to provide electronic billing, no-cost online legal research, and databases for document and file management. We have provided clients with alternative billing arrangements, including task-based billing, project fee caps, and blended rate billing. We are committed to high quality work and meeting the standards our clients have come to expect.