Len Kilgore is a partner in the Baton Rouge office of Kean Miller. He is one of the founding members of the firm and has more than 30 years of litigation experience in environmental and toxic tort litigation, including class action, multiple joinder, and toxic tort cases. Len represents local, national and international commercial, energy and industrial clients in litigation involving toxic tort claims, personal injury, property damage claims, and class actions. Much of the litigation he has handled requires the development of complex expert testimony and scientific evidence.

Len is listed in The Best Lawyers in America, (Woodward White Inc., 2007-2009) and in Chambers USA - Ameica's Leading Lawyers for Business (2006-2008).

Representative Experience

• Lead defense counsel for numerous oil and gas exploration, transportation and products companies in lawsuits by landowners claiming property damages related to oil and gas operations including surface and groundwater contamination and wetlands loss.
• Representation of industry clients in connection with numerous state and federal Superfund sites including Line Avenue Creosote Site; Shoreline Refinery Site; Dutchtown Site; Combustion Inc. Site; Mar Services Site; PAB Oil Site; Tate Cove Site; Marco in Iota Site; Tex Tin, Texas Site; and Rab Valley, Oklahoma Site and others.
• Representation of PRPs in numerous state superfund sites which employed RECAP to determine the remedial action, including the Line Avenue Site in Shreveport, Louisiana. The Line Avenue site was the first site to be addressed under Louisiana's RECAP regulations and the Inactive and Abandoned Site (IAS) regulations.
• Representation of a landowner in securing a full and complete release from LDEQ for the Shoreline Refinery Site. The site was an abandoned oil refinery. The agreement with LDEQ provided for a voluntary, partial cleanup in return for a full release.
• Negotiation of numerous Guaranteed Remedical Action Contracts for state and federal Superfund sites with environmental contracting firms on behalf of PRPs.
• Representation of numerous clients in connection with selection of remedical actions under Louisiana's Inactive and Abandoned Site (IAS) regulations and Louisiana's Risk Evaluation/Corrective Action Program (RECAP).
  
• PRP Group counsel for Bayou Sorrel Superfund Site and Gulf Coast Vacuum Superfund Site PRP Groups.
• Lead trial counsel for defendant in toxic tort class actions in Louisiana and Mississippi in connection with a chemical leak from a railcar at Gaylord Chemical in Bogalusa, Louisiana and in negotiations with state and federal agencies.
• Representation of defendant, a former plant owner and operator, in the remediation of its pesticide blending and warehousing facility in New Orleans, Louisiana, and in the defense of a resulting class action lawsuit.
• Representation of defendant as trial counsel, plant operator, in a class action lawsuit resulting from a catastrophic chemical plant explosion in Monroe, Louisiana.
• Lead defense counsel for joint defense group in a class action toxic tort suit related to Combustion, Inc. Site on behalf of a joint defense group.
• Defense counsel in many multiple joinder class action environmental tort cases alleging chemical releases from industrial plants.
• Lead administrative hearing counsel in environmental permit and enforcement actions before EPA and LDEQ.
• Defense counsel in class action and multiple joinder cases involving five (5) releases of H2S/SO2 from a petroleum refinery in New Orleans.
• Defense of numerous compliance actions initiated by LDEQ and EPA regions 4 and 6 involving alleged violations of a broad range of environmental statutes.

Education

Len earned his B.A. from Louisiana State University in 1973. He earned his J.D. from the LSU Law Center in 1976 where he was a member of the Louisiana Law Review. He served as an Adjunct Professor teaching Louisiana Environmental Law at the Tulane Law School in 1991.

Admissions

• Admitted to bar, 1976, Louisiana.

Memberships

• Baton Rouge, Louisiana State (Environmental Law Section) and American (Land and Natural Resources Section Vice Chair, Committee on Environmental and Toxic Torts, 1989-1990) Bar Associations
• Defense Research Institute
• Louisiana Association of Defense Counsel
• Fellow, Louisiana Bar Foundation
• Chancellor's Council, LSU Paul M. Hebert Law Center
• LSU Law Center Board of Trustees.

Community Service

• Board of Directors, Baton Rouge Sheltered Workshop.
• Past President, Board of Directors, Association for Retarded Citizens, Baton Rouge, Inc.
• President, Board of Directors, Baton Rouge Green.
• Past President, Board of Directors, Louisiana Arts and Science Museum.
• Past President, University High School Dads Club.
• Sustaining Member, Friends of Scouting.
• Past Member, Board of Directors, Friends of LSU Art Museum.
• Administrative Board, University United Methodist Church.
• American Legion Youth Baseball Coach.
• Past President, Board of Directors, Baton Rouge Speech and Hearing Foundation.
• The Gottlieb Association, Capital Area United Way, 1990-present.

Articles, Publications and Presentations

Expert Depositions in the Era of Daubert and its Progeny
Environmental Notes, April 2006

Lecturer

• Environmental Law Update - 2005, Kean Miller Conference Center, February 23, 2005.
• Legal Aspects of RECAP, Kean Miller/CRA RECAP 2003 Seminar, September, 2003.
• The Louisiana RECAP Remediation Program, Louisiana State University, 2002.
• Hazardous Waste Site Liabilities under CERCLA and Other Federal Laws, LSU Center of Continuing Professional Development, 1990.
• Executive Enterprises, U.S. EPA Region VI Environmental Regulation Conference, Dallas, Texas, 1989.
• Defense of Hazardous Waste Cases, National Business Institute, 1988.
• Recent Developments in Environmental Law Affecting Gulf Coast Mineral Operations, Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation Institute on Oil and Gas Operations, 1989.
• Environmental Regulation of Oil and Gas Exploration and Production, Louisiana Mineral Law Institute, 1990.

Authorships

• Contribution in Non-Collision Maritime Cases, 35 Louisiana Law Review 689.
• The Ten-Year Acquisitive Prescription of Immovables, 36 Louisiana Law Review 1000.
• Co-author: Expert Depositions in the Era of Daubert (and its Progeny), ABA Environmental Litigation Section, 2001.
  
• Associate Editor and Co-author: Louisiana Environmental Handbook, Lawyers' Cooperative Publishing.