Edward Ned B. Witte

Ned Witte is a shareholder in the Environmental Strategies Practice Group. He represents clients in the service and manufacturing industries as well as government bodies in a wide range of environmental matters in Wisconsin and across the U.S.

Since 2011, Ned has been Peer Review Rated as AV® Preeminent™, the highest performance rating in Martindale-Hubbell’s peer review rating system. Since 2010, Ned has been included in the 2010-2017 editions of Chambers USA: America’s leading Lawyers for Business. He is listed in Best Lawyers (since 2006). In addition, between 2009 and 2020, Ned has been selected for inclusion in the Wisconsin Super Lawyers lists. Ned was honored by the Wisconsin Law Journal as Leader in the Law 2015. Best Lawyers® named Ned the 2016 Environmental Law “Lawyer of the Year” in Milwaukee. Attorneys honored as “Lawyers of the Year” have received particularly high ratings for their abilities, professionalism and integrity based on exhaustive peer-review surveys.

Ned has broad, nationally recognized experience in counseling clients concerning the emerging contaminants Per-and Polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS (including PFOA and PFOS). Ned and Godfrey & Kahn represent clients with interests in numerous PFAS sites in Wisconsin including at disposal sites, manufacturing sites and locations where PFAS-containing aqueous film forming foam (AFFF) has been discharged. In late 2020, Ned was selected by the Biden-Harris Agency Review Team for the United States Environmental Protection Agency to consult on PFAS issues.

The Secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources recently invited Ned to serve as a member of the newly formed Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources PFAS Policy Advisory Group. Ned served as Co-Chair of Citizens and Public Interest Committee for the State of Wisconsin PFAS Action Council (WisPAC), which generated the 2020 Wisconsin PFAS Action Plan. Ned is a member of the ASTM Collaboration Area AC417 – PFAS Real Estate, Legal, Due Diligence Focus Group supporting the Committee E50 on Environmental Assessment and Risk Management. Ned has presented on PFAS issues before the American Institute of Professional Geologists, the 2020 Emerging Contaminants Summit in Westminster, Colorado, national seminars, and state and federal bar association continuing legal education seminars.

Ned has extensive experience in the development and redevelopment of environmentally sensitive and contaminated properties, including Brownfields, coordinating Superfund site response activities, including as chair of steering committees, siting and permitting of manufacturing facilities and renewable and traditional energy projects. Ned also has structured and served as lead counsel in environmental due diligence and liability allocation in real estate, financing and corporate transactions, defense of government- and private party-lead enforcement actions and, conversely, enforcement of environmental contractual rights against third parties.