JIM NOLES' practice is devoted exclusively to issues of environmental law, regulation, and litigation in Alabama. Working out of the firm’s Birmingham office, his practice focuses on such matters and topics as landfill permitting and regulation, wetlands regulation and associated Section 404 permitting, the National Environmental Policy Act, the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (a.k.a., CERCLA or “Superfund”), endangered species, the redevelopment of brownfields, “all appropriate inquiry” and other aspects of environmental law related to real estate and corporate transactions, and issues of environmental justice.

In addition to the foregoing areas of expertise, Mr. Noles has also carved out a niche both within Balch & Bingham and within Alabama’s legal community with respect to legal issues associated with the regulation and protection of historical and cultural resources. He possesses particular expertise regarding the federal National Historic Preservation Act (“NHPA”) and the procedures associated with Section 106, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, and the regulatory processes and requirements of the Alabama Historical Commission and various federal agencies.

Beyond the firm, Mr. Noles has taught courses at the University of Alabama at Birmingham on the law of historical and cultural resources in the school's anthropology department as an adjunct professor. He has also served as an adjunct professor at the University of Alabama’s School of Law, where he taught Military Law in the spring of 2006 and 2007.

Mr. Noles’ other civic and community activities include service on the Board of Directors to the Alabama Humanities Foundation, duties as the chancellor to St. Mary’s-on-the-Highlands Episcopal Church, and coordination of the Birmingham Bar Association’s Young Lawyer Section Veterans Oral History Project (an official partner of the Library of Congress). He also serves on the Birmingham Bar Association’s Scholarship Committee and was one of the initial founding trustees of the Birmingham-Jefferson County History Museum. In 2005, he was named by the Birmingham Business Journal as one of the city’s “Top 40 Under 40.”

In addition to his legal work, Mr. Noles is a published author. His recent books include A Pocketful of History: Four Hundred years of America- One State Quarter at a Time (more information) and Twenty-Three Minutes to Eternity: The Final Voyage of the Escort Carrier USS Liscome Bay (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2004). His work has also appeared in numerous newspapers, magazines, and journals, to include the New York Times, Preservation, Urban Land, Alabama Heritage, The Journal of the Legal Profession, Smithsonian Air & Space, Thicket and Natural Resources & Environment.

Prior to attending law school and joining Balch & Bingham, Mr. Noles served as an officer and aviator in the United States Army at Fort Rucker, Alabama, and Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

Representative Experience

• • Alabama Rivers Alliance v. United States Army Corps of Engineers, et al., United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama, Civil Action No 5:07-CV-1609-IPJ (present) (representing permit holder intervening in lawsuit to defend CWA section 404 permit).
  • Murdock v. Alabama Department of Environmental Management, et al., Circuit Court of Montgomery County, CV-03-1166 (present) (representing permit holder intervening in lawsuit to defend landfill permit).
  • Department of the Army Permit SAM-2007-635-DMY, (Oct. 12 2007) (coordinated cultural resource assessment and mitigation efforts in support of permitting of 3,700-acre steel mill facility in southern Alabama).
  • Dunham Site, Birmingham, Alabama, (Site Number 461-9450) (June 8, 2007) (represented property purchaser in the course of assessing and placing former industrial site into ADEM's Voluntary Cleanup Program).
  • D'Olive Bay Restoration and Preservation Committee, Inc. v. United States Army Corps of Engineers, (United States District Court for the Southern District of Alabama, Civil Action No. 05-0561-BH-D) (March 15, 2007) (represented developer in defense of CWA section 404 permit issued by Corps).
  • ADEM Permit 58-01R, (December 29, 2006) (assisted landfill operators in obtaining 320-acre expansion to landfill in St. Clair County, Alabama).
  • Department of the Army Permit SAM-2006-00912-U, (November 9, 2006) (coordinated efforts by county to complete NEPA process and obtain permit to construct drinking water resevoir in north central Alabama).
  • Bay Area Responsible Growth Alliance v. United States Army Corps of Engineers, and Cypress/Spanish Fort I, L.P. (intervenor), United States District Court for the Southern District of Alabama, Civil Action No. 05-423 (July 19, 2005) (represented developer in defense of CWA section 404 permit issued by Corps of Engineers).
  • Stockham Valves & Fittings Site, Birmingham, Alabama (Site Number 461-9315) (represented property owner in the course of assessing and placing former industrial facility into ADEM’s Voluntary Cleanup Program and its subsequent sale to a third party).
  • Department of the Army Permit AL01-02158-H (September 2, 2004) (represented landowner in completing NEPA process and obtaining a CWA section 404 permit necessary to construct a 1,050-acre reservoir in northwestern Alabama).
  • Alabama Disposal Solutions-Landfill, L.L.C. v. Town of Lowndesboro, 837 So.2d 292 (Ala. Civ.App. 2002) (filed amicus curiae brief on behalf of Business Council of Alabama, Association of County Commissions of Alabama, Alabama Chemical Association, Alabama Forestry Association, and Alabama Pulp and Paper Council opposing moratorium on solid waste permitting in Alabama).
  • Doug Palmer and the Friends of Big Canoe Creek, Petitioners, v. Alabama Department of Environmental Management, and McCartney Construction Company, Inc., Intervenor, Alabama Environmental Management Commission Docket No. 99-25 (December 5, 2000) (defended issuance of an NPDES permit (AL0072214) to McCartney Construction Company for its quarry in St. Clair County, Alabama).
  • Wild Alabama and Wild South, Petitioners, v. Alabama Department of Environmental Management, Respondent, and Alabama Power Company, Intervenor, Alabama Environmental Management Commission, Docket No. 99-22 (February 15, 2000) (defended issuance of Air Permit 503-1001-X006 to Alabama Power for the construction and operation of four natural gas-fired combined-cycle units at Alabama Power's Barry Steam Plant in Mobile County, Alabama).
  • Karen Bryan and Hobson Bryan v. United States Army Corps of Engineers, Tuscaloosa County, et al. (United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama, Civil Action No. CV-00-PWG-0064-W (January 10, 2000) (represented county in defense of CWA section 404 permit issued by Corps of Engineers).

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

• • American Bar Association
  • Alabama State Bar
  • Birmingham Bar Association
  • Alabama Historical Association
  • Alabama Aerospace Industries Association
    

COMMUNITY RELATIONS

• • Board of Directors, The Alabama Humanities Foundation
  • Chancellor, St. Mary's-on-the-Highlands Episcopal Church
  • Coordinator, America Veterans Oral History Project

NEWS

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

Speaking Engagements