PFAS and Environmental Justice Workshop

Michael R. Goldstein, Esq., Managing Shareholder, The Goldstein Environmental Law Firm, P.A

Michael R. Goldstein, Managing Shareholder of The Goldstein Environmental Law Firm, P.A., and a Martindale-Hubbell AV Preeminent and Chambers and Partners rated attorney, practices exclusively in the areas of environmental law and environmental redevelopment for a broad range of clients, including retail, residential, and industrial developers, public and private companies, real estate funds, lenders, and local governments. A major aspect of Mr. Goldstein’s environmental legal practice involves support of real estate and business transactions, including managing pre-acquisition and pre-leasing due diligence investigations; structuring, negotiating, and drafting environmental provisions in purchase, lease, and development agreements; and assisting lenders evaluate and limit the risk of exposure to environmental liability in connection with new loans and potential foreclosures. In addition, he works closely and extensively with real estate development principals and engineering, planning, and design professionals to help coordinate federal, state and local regulatory approvals for complex retail, industrial, residential, mixed use, and marina related projects throughout the State of Florida.  

Mr. Goldstein’s practice has a heavy emphasis on the remediation, financing, and beneficial reuse of contaminated sites and involves a broad array of Brownfields related transactional, administrative, regulatory, legal, legislative, and policy work for clients in both the private and public sectors. He has developed a national reputation as one of the leading and most innovative Brownfields practitioners in Florida, working on important and precedent establishing projects as well as heading up or participating in numerous local, regional, state, and federal environmental restoration initiatives. On a statewide level, Mr. Goldstein was the founding Chairman of the Florida Brownfields Association and served as its Chairman and/or President for the first five years of the organization’s existence. Mr. Goldstein’s tenure as Chairman and President was distinguished by his commitment to elevating environmental justice and public health as critical areas of emphasis for business, community, regulatory agency, and local government stakeholders. In 1996, the Miami-Dade County Commission appointed him Chairman of the Miami-Dade County Brownfields Task Force, a post that he held until the committee’s business was completed in 2004. In January 2006, Mr. Goldstein was appointed to serve on the Advisory Board of the Bureau of National Affair’s highly respected Environmental Due Diligence Guide, which serves as a national reporting, editorial, and opinion forum for environmental transactions and related Brownfields and policy matters. In 2008, he founded and funded the Goldstein Brownfields Foundation, which is dedicated to empowering economically and health disadvantaged individuals and communities with scholarships, programming, and resources to restore polluted land, revitalize neighborhoods, and protect public health. The Goldstein Brownfields Foundation also focuses on increasing the ethnic and gender diversity of lawyers working in the environmental arena through academic scholarships, educational and career programming, and professional mentoring. In 2009, Mr. Goldstein was appointed to the Executive Committee of the National Brownfields Coalition, an affiliation of private and public sector stakeholders working in the U.S. Congress to advocate for improvements in environmental redevelopment policy and legislation. 

Dr. Fábio Iwashita, Ph.D., Research Scientist, Division of Environmental

Remediation, New York State Department of Environmental 

Conservation

Fábio is a Research Scientist in the Division of Environmental Remediation of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC). He has a PhD in Geology; a Master’s degree in Remote Sensing; and a Bachelor’s degree in Ecology. Fabio has extensive academic international experience, he worked as an Assistant Professor at Los Andes University in Colombia, as a visiting scientist at the U.S.Geological Survey (Denver, CO), as a postdoctoral researcher for the Australian Rivers Institute at Griffith University, the Desert Research Institute (Reno, NV), and the University of Florence (Italy).

His research is focused on the advancement of scientific computing, machine learning (ML) and spatial modelling methods to investigate hydrogeological systems and soil-surface water interaction across catchments impacted by human activities. His current work at NYSDEC includes investigating the contamination of soil, rivers and groundwater by chemical compounds such as PCBs and PFAS. Fábio is also the Division's Diversity Officer and Liaison with Indigenous Nations and his work supports the development and updating of Environmental Justice and Disadvantaged Communities policies.