About Trajan
Trajan Perez focuses his practice on litigation and environmental issues, whether commercial or regulatory, and is committed to saving clients time and costs to ensure success and long-term viability. His breadth of experience includes issues spanning environmental liability, toxic tort claims, products liability, establishing and maintaining federal and state regulatory compliance, and brownfield redevelopment issues, as well as handling sophisticated contract and commercial disputes. Trajan represents manufacturers, energy companies, industrial facilities, waste and recycling entities, and other highly regulated businesses. He is known to take his clients’ problems as his own, which is reflected in his acute knowledge of their businesses and adjacent sectors and industries, as well as a robust understanding of the regulations that govern their operations.
The difficulty of doing business in California, where wage and hour claims are commonplace, requires California-specific experience and insight on employment issues. Trajan has represented California entities in workplace and personnel-related disputes, including defense against discrimination and harassment claims, PAGA claims, employee disputes, and wage and hour claims.
Trajan represents large multinational entities with growing and interconnected challenges, risks, and opportunities. In both administrative hearings and in trial, Trajan represents clients against local and state agencies to successfully resolve municipal challenges and/or disputes. On the environmental side, he litigates federal cases arising under CERCLA and RCRA Superfund statutes, handling all aspects of the litigation process, including negotiations with responsible parties, contribution and allocation remedies, and cost recovery. He advises on matters concerning federal regulations, including the Petroleum Marketing Practices Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Clean Air Act, as well as various state-law equivalents. Additionally, he advises on and negotiates with state and federal environmental agencies, obtaining environmental permits, advises on CEQA permitting and EIR challenges, and manages environmental response activities. He is familiar with all aspects of ADR and has recently begun to offer his services as a mediator. Trajan is also experienced with admiralty and maritime law, including arrests and attachments.
Trajan maintains a reputation for his litigation practice, overseeing and advising on complex litigation strategies. He leads teams of attorneys in multistate and multidistrict litigation to achieve clients’ objectives. From high stakes matters to high volume and multijurisdictional issues, Trajan is called on to assist general counsel with their legal project management needs. With intimate knowledge of his clients’ in-house structures, Trajan develops project management processes with the goal of better predictability and reducing costs for clients. As circumstances change or facts become known, effective project management allows for monitoring, limits unapproved deviation, and creates opportunities to pivot accordingly.
In the legal profession, Trajan is a leader, collaborator, and mentor. He leads the energy and shipping department with attorneys spanning offices in California, Oregon, and Washington. He has earned several prestigious accolades, including “Leader in Their Field” by Chambers USA. Trajan was also recognized as the firm’s “Mentor of the Year” for his continuous dedication and mindfulness in supporting the professional and business development of junior attorneys.
Representative Experience
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Environmental Plus
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Member of litigation team that successfully prosecuted claims against the State of California for breach of contract arising from former mining site, resulting in favorable allocation of liability and environmental remediation at the site.
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Obtained favorable outcome on behalf of energy client in response to a notice letter, resulting in a state regulatory agency working collaboratively with the client.
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Recovered substantial sums awarded from successful litigation against remediation contractor due to breach-of-contract and breach-of-warranty claims.
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Overseeing Superfund sites and protecting clients’ interests with careful oversight of remediation efforts, agency costs, scopes of work, and third-party cost recovery activities.
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Successful representation in six-month trial arising from allegations of toxic building materials brought by 36 plaintiffs, resulting in a hung jury followed by a directed verdict in favor of our client.
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Negotiate with state agencies for resolution of historic contractual obligation related to off-shore leaseholds.
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Represented manufacturing client in OSHA administrative action stemming from alleged deficiencies in lock-out /tag-out procedures and protocols. Resulted in a negotiated settlement.
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Litigation Plus
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Successful prosecution and defense representation on employment discrimination and sexual harassment cases.
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Successful resolution of cases involving the Petroleum Marketing Practices Act and related marketing issues.
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National litigation manager and litigation attorney for nationwide multidistrict litigation case (more than 70,000 lawsuits and claims) involving claims for alleged harm from pharmaceutical use, including management of national staff and budgets, and development of experts in medical conditions at issue.
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Defended Fortune 500 client in unlawful death case, including defense against punitive damages, resulting in favorable settlement after scorched earth litigation tactics by plaintiff's firm.
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Served as regional counsel for underground storage tank portfolio.
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Serve as regional counsel (seven state area) for tort and premise liability docket for retail clients.
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Activities
- OC Human Relations, Basic Mediation Training Certification, 2022
Recognition
- Selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America® (Long Beach, CA)
- Environmental Law, 2022-present
- Litigation—Environmental, 2022-present
- Recognized as a “Leader in Their Field” by Chambers USA for Environment—California, 2023–present
Insights from Trajan
- “Phantom Equity as an Incentive,” Master Pools Guild (Oct. 2022)
- “Corporate Responsibility,” State Bar of Texas Environmental and Natural Resources Law Section, 2022 Symposium on Legal System Changes to Address Climate Change and the Energy Transition, moderator (Apr. 2022)
- “Understanding Business Entities and Personal Guaranties,” Western Region Building Materials Credit Association, monthly meeting (Feb. 2019)
- “An Update on Arranger Liability Under CERCLA: Recent Cases and the Impact of Pakootas,” American Bar Association, webinar panelist (Dec. 2016)
