Phil Cha

serves as a team lead for the Duane Morris Energy industry group and is a member of the firm’s governing Partners Board. He litigates complex environmental, commercial and mass tort matters in state and federal courts throughout the United States. His roster of clients have included major corporations such as Occidental Petroleum Corporation, Sunoco, Inc., Exxon Mobil Corporation, LUKOIL, Aramark Corporation and other public and private companies. Mr. Cha has litigated dozens of high-exposure and high-profile cases regarding environmental contamination, business and contract disputes, defective products, and mass/toxic torts. The majority of Mr. Cha’s cases involve amounts in the millions of dollars. Many have been class actions, multidistrict litigation or government enforcement actions involving amounts in controversy in the hundreds of millions or billions of dollars.

In addition to his litigation practice, Mr. Cha advises clients on regulatory compliance, government investigations, management of environmental liabilities, remediation of contaminated sites, and the sale and development of contaminated properties.

Mr. Cha has received numerous accolades by clients, peers and legal publications for his legal abilities, professionalism and accomplishments. A General Counsel of a public company described Mr. Cha as hyper-responsive, very smart, and exceptionally efficient. A Chief Legal Officer of an international petroleum company who hired him for a government investigation said Phil did a masterful job. An Associate General Counsel of a public company described Mr. Cha as very responsive, dependable, and effective. Always a great problem solver. Law360 named Mr. Cha a Rainmaker and a Minority Power Broker in back-to-back years. The New Jersey State Bar Association’s Commission on Professionalism named Mr. Cha Professional Lawyer of the Year for consistently demonstrating high character, legal competence and exemplary professional behavior. Mr. Cha has an AV Preeminent Peer Rating and a Client Champion Gold Rating on Martindale-Hubbell.

Outside the practice of law, Mr. Cha has partnered with various non-profit organizations such as the Law School Admission Council’s DiscoverLaw Program, the American Red Cross, and pro bono citizenship clinics.

Mr. Cha is a 1999 graduate of Rutgers Law School and a 1995 graduate of Rutgers School of Environmental & Biological Sciences.

Resume

Experience

•Duane Morris LLP
- Partner, 2016-present

•Archer & Greiner, P.C. (2000-2016)
- Associate; Shareholder
- Vice-chair of Environmental Practice Group
- Chairman of Diversity & Inclusion

Honors and Awards

•Named a Top Business Attorney in Litigation (Environmental) by SouthJersey.com, 2019

•Named a “Top Attorney” in Environmental Law by SJ Magazine, 2018

•Recognized as a Rainmaker by Law360, 2016
•Named an Awesome Attorney in Environmental Law by South Jersey Magazine, 2016
•Named a Minority Power Broker by Law360, 2015
•SmartCEO Magazine, Industry Practice Award Finalist, 2015

•Named Professional Lawyer of the Year by the New Jersey State Bar Association's Commission on Professionalism, 2014

•Distinguished Community Service Award - Rutgers Law APALSA, 2012
•Professional Achievement Award - APALA-NJ, 2009
•AV Preeminent Peer Review Rated by Martindale-Hubbell

•Client Champion Gold Rating by Martindale-Hubbell

Selected Publications and Speaking Engagements

Selected Publications

•Co-author, Environmental Cleanup and Recovery for Fraudulent Transfers, Today's General Counsel, June 2016
•Quoted, Chesapeake Bay Pollutants Drop More Than Expected, Bloomberg BNA, April 18, 2016
• Profiting from Diversity, COMMERCE, February 2015
• Law and the Fear of Cancer, Today's General Counsel, May 2014
•Co-author, Handling Lawsuits for Fear of Cancer From Toxic Torts, New Jersey Law Journal, February 28, 2014
•Author, Building a Championship Diversity Program With a College Athletics Approach, The Legal Intelligencer, May 2013
• Site Remediation Reform Act, A&G News Alert, June 2009
• Legal Challenges to the Surrogate Groundwater Injury Formula, A&G News Alert, August 2003

Selected Speaking Engagements

• Update on New Jersey's NRD Program, Ad-Hoc Industry NRD Task Force, October 2006