Keith M. Casto Managing Partner & General Counsel

Keith M. Casto

Mr. Casto’s recent work for Carbon Venture Partners includes advising a client that manufactures medium-density fiberboard on its generation of compliance offset credits. Throughout this process, he has been intimately involved in the development of legal standards to account for, report, and verify greenhouse gas emission reductions that result from the manufacturer’s use of its proprietary technology. In conjunction with the client’s on-going offset credit generation and development efforts, Mr. Casto advised on and negotiated an agreement between the manufacturer and a New York based hedge fund, in which the hedge fund agreed to provide a revenue stream of over $12 million for only a portion of the manufacturer’s projected future offset credits.

Mr. Casto’s expertise stems from his 10 years of experience at the Atlanta Regional Office of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and over 20 years in private law practice in Northern California and Atlanta, Georgia. Over the course of his career, his work has included energy and environmental regulatory and transactional consultation, environmental and toxic tort litigation, and white collar environmental criminal defense at the federal, state and local levels. He has also been involved with conventional and renewable energy projects, greenhouse gas emissions credit trading, green technology financing, and renewable energy project development, and is an international speaker on these issues. Mr. Casto has been included in the 2011, 2012 and 2013 editions of The Best Lawyers in America.

His environmental regulatory and litigation practice has encompassed regulatory compliance counseling for all environmental media, due diligence investigation in real estate transactions and corporate mergers and acquisitions, domestic and international environmental audits, environmental management system consultation, civil litigation, including cost recovery for soil and ground water contamination under Superfund, and various common law theories and toxic tort defense. In addition, he represents industrial clients, real estate developers, and individuals in defense of civil enforcement actions and criminal prosecutions at federal, state, and local levels in California and throughout the United States.

He has practiced extensively before a number of energy and environmental agencies throughout California, the United States, and Europe, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of Justice, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the California Public Utilities Commission, the California Energy Commission, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, the Regional Water Quality Control Boards, the U. S. Corps of Engineers, the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission, the State Water Resources Control Board, the California Air Resource Board, the California Department of Toxic Substances Control, and numerous hazardous material management regulatory agencies and water districts.
Memberships & Affiliations
Mr. Casto is on the Board of Directors of the Bay Area Council and is a member of the Florida Bar, the State Bar of Georgia and the State Bar of California. He is also active in the Environmental Law Institute, the American Bar Association's Section on Environmental and Natural Resource Law and Section on International Law, the environmental law sections of the Florida, Georgia, and California state bars, the Bar Association of San Francisco, and the Santa Clara County Bar Association.


Licenses
Mr. Casto is admitted to practice before the state courts of Florida, Georgia and California; the U.S. District Courts for the Middle, Northern, and Southern Districts of Florida, the Northern, Middle, and Southern Districts of Georgia, and the Northern, Central, and Southern Districts of California; and the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Fifth, Eleventh, and Ninth Circuits.
Education 

1973   J. D., Stetson University College of Law