Ken Lederman

Ken is a contaminated-property specialist who provides counseling and litigation support on environmental issues in property ownership, transactions (purchase, sale, or financing), and redevelopment.

Ken helps purchasers, sellers, developers, businesses, and landowners with site acquisition, investigation, and remediation strategies. A former Assistant Attorney General for the Washington State Department of Ecology, he has successfully facilitated the negotiation, remediation, and redevelopment of hundreds of contaminated properties throughout the Northwest.

Ken navigates the negotiation of contractual provisions and transactional indemnities regarding environmental liability, and guides property owners who are navigating contamination issues on existing properties – whether during redevelopment or not. Ken is also an experienced first-chair trial attorney, with a strong background in federal and state hazardous waste cost-recovery litigation and natural resource damage litigation.

Representative Transactions: Commercial & Residential Real Estate

• Assisting numerous national, regional, and local developers on transactional strategies and indemnities, environmental cleanup work, and regulatory closure strategies for redevelopment projects throughout Washington and Oregon, as well as other jurisdictions throughout the United States.
• Representing multiple municipal entities and higher education facilities regarding environmental liabilities and transactional strategies.
• Representing multiple regional automobile dealerships regarding environmental regulatory and liability management.

Representative Transactions: Industrial Real Estate

• Representing multiple clients regarding sediment liabilities and natural resource damages associated with the Lower Duwamish Waterway Superfund Site, including service on the LDW Allocation Steering Committee.
• Representing regional and national industrial real estate developers on regulatory closure and redevelopment strategy for contaminated property in Tacoma tideflats, South of Downtown (SoDo), the Kent Industrial Corridor, and industrial areas along the I-5 corridor.
• Assisting local municipalities with the environmental cleanup and decommissioning of city infrastructure for purposes of rehabilitation and redevelopment of municipal facilities.
• Managed regulatory process for property being developed as sediment trans-loading facility, including supervision of a separate process to defend the client from liabilities associated with the Lower Duwamish Waterway Superfund site.

Representative Matters: Environmental Litigation

• Lead counsel for multiple cost-recovery claims regarding contaminated properties, including litigation that helped support the largest single-asset real estate transaction in Washington State history.
• Representing the Port of Seattle regarding cost recovery efforts for the investigation and remediation of Terminal 91.
• Representing multiple residential homeowners regarding cleanup and cost-recovery strategies of heating oil underground storage tank matters.

• Downtown Seattle Association (DSA), Board of Directors, 2014-Present
  • Executive Committee Member & General Counsel, 2017-2021
• Leadership Tomorrow, Class of 2007
• Society of Industrial and Office Realtors, Member, 2018-Present
• National Association of Industrial Office Properties, 2019-Present
• Community Development Round Table, Member, 2020-2023
• Washington Conservation Action
  • Board Chair, 2009-2010
  • Board Chair, 2021-Present

• Chambers USA (Washington) Leading Individual, Environment, 2017-Present
• Best Lawyers in America© Environmental Law, 2018-Present
• Washington Super Lawyers, Environmental, 2012-2023
  • Top 100 for 2023
• Washington Rising Star, Environmental, 2004-2010
• Puget Sound Business Journal’s “40 Under 40,” 2008

• Speaker, “Environmental Justice: Implementation and Practical Implications”, WSBA Environmental and Land Use Section Midyear, April 19, 2024.
• Co-Chair, “Model Toxics Control Act CLE” - 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2021, 2023
• KCBA Alternative Dispute Resolution Section: Environmental Dispute Resolution - Yes, You CAN Successfully Apply ADR Skills to Public Policy Facilitation, December 14, 2023
• Model Toxics Control Act, Law Seminars International, December 7, 2023
• Contaminated Properties in the Northwest, The Seminar Group, June 1, 2023
• Hazardous Materials in Real Estate Transaction, Law Seminars International, November 3, 2022
• Model Toxics Control Act, Law Seminars International, October 28, 2021
• Model Toxics Control Act, Law Seminars International, October 10, 2021
• Panel Member, "Alternative Dispute Resolution in the Environmental and Land Use Context," King County Bar Association Environmental and Land Use Law Section, May 11, 2018.
• Mediation Training, Dispute Resolution Center of King County, April 23, 2018
• 24^th Annual Northwest Dispute Resolution Conference, University of Washington School of Law, March 22, 2018
• Speaker, 2017 Real Estate/Land Use Briefing: Essential Industry Updates, November 9, 2017.
• Model Toxics Control Act, Law Seminars International, September 28, 2017
• Panel Member, "Cleaning Up Water, Air & Dirt: Litigation & Policy Updates," King County Bar Association Environmental & Land Use Section, June 18, 2017.
• Source Contribution at Superfund and Other Contaminated Sites: A Legal and Technical Update, Exponent, October 19, 2016
• Speaker, "Model Toxics Control Act," 60th Annual WSAMA Spring Conference, April 27, 2017.
• Northwest Remediation Conference, Northwest Environmental Business Council, October 4, 2016
• Re-Using Contaminated Land Conference, Northwest Environmental Business Council, October 8, 2015
• Speaker, 15th Annual Comprehensive Conference on Clean Water and Stormwater, April 7, 2015
• Re-Using Contaminated Land Conference 2014, Northwest Environmental Business Council, October 2, 2014
• Future of the Seattle Waterfront, King County Bar Association, September 24, 2014
• Environmental Indemnity in Real Estate Transactions: Allocating Risk of Potential Environmental Liability 23, 2014
• Model Toxics Control Act (MTCA), Law Seminars International, September 20, 2013
• New Developments in Brownfield Redevelopment, Stafford Publications, March 19, 2013.

• J.D., Seattle University School of Law, (cum laude)
• Order of the Barristers – 4-time regional and national finalist in mock trial and appellate competition
• Class Historian and Commencement Speaker
• B.A., Rutgers University

• American Bar Association, Member
  • Environmental & Land Use Law Section
• King County Bar Association, Member
  • Environmental Law Section, Co-Founder and Inaugural Chair
• Washington State Bar Association, Member
  • Environmental & Land Use Law Section, Editorial Board
• Oregon State Bar, Member