Joseph R. Podlewski, Jr. has been practicing in the area of environmental law for over thirty years. Throughout the course of his career he has represented clients on a wide range of contested environmental matters in state and federal courts and has appeared before numerous environmental agencies. He has also provided advice and counsel to clients on environmental issues arising in commercial and real estate transactions. He has extensive experience with federal environmental laws including CERCLA, RCRA and the Clean Air Act, and with Illinois environmental statutes and regulations.
Before entering private practice, Mr. Podlewski was an enforcement attorney with the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency for eight years, serving at both its Springfield headquarters and its Chicago regional office. He also served as a law clerk to the Honorable Tobias G. Barry of the Illinois Appellate Court. He is a former municipal commissioner with the Village of Brookfield, Illinois.
Mr. Podlewski is past Chair of the Chicago Bar Association’s Environmental Law Committee, and was appointed to the Governor’s Small Business Environmental Task Force in 1994. He is a member of the Illinois State and Chicago Bar Associations, and was Chair of the Illinois State Bar Association’s Environmental Law Section Council in 2009-2010. He was selected an Illinois “Super Lawyer” for 2007.
Mr. Podlewski has spoken and written extensively on environmental topics. He is the author of a chapter entitled “Environmental Issues in the Landlord-Tenant Relationship” that appears in two IICLE handbooks, Environmental Law in Illinois Corporate and Real Estate Transactions (IICLE, 2014) and Commercial Landlord-Tenant Practice (IICLE, 2012). He co-authored “Environmental Permits in a Nutshell” for the ISBA’sEnvironmental Law for Non-Environmental Lawyers (ISBA, 2006).
Mr. Podlewski received his Juris Doctor degree, with honors, from the Illinois Institute of Technology/Chicago-Kent College of Law, where he was a lead articles editor of theChicago-Kent Law Review. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Northern Illinois University.
