George S. Van Nest

George originally joined Duke Holzman in 1995 after law school and a brief stint working with the United States EPA Office of Regional Counsel.   He re-joined the firm in 2025.   He has practiced extensively in the environmental, construction, landuse and municipal fields.   This blend of experience has given him unique experience to understand all facets of a client’s needs and issues during environmental and development projects.

George’s environmental practice has included handling Superfund and petroleum spill and cost recovery cases throughout the country.  He has handled civil and criminal environmental enforcement actions against private and public entities.  He has worked on a variety of private and public brownfields projects under New York’s BCP and ERP programs. He has worked on a broad range of environmental matters including: complex environmental due diligence matters; landfill and mine permitting; SEQR environmental impact review, land use and rezoning matters; wetlands and related litigation.   He has also worked on renewable energy siting, leases, and host community agreements for public and private entities. 

George’s municipal practice has involved serving as general and special counsel to various municipal entities from villages, towns, cities and counties.   He provides counsel on general municipal matters, landuse and development, brownfields redevelopment, construction and environmental issues and claims.  

He has provided counsel to subcontractors, contractors, suppliers and project owners regarding a variety of construction issues and claims.  He regularly works on construction contracts and claims, including project delays, extras, acceleration and project impact issues for construction projects of all sizes.  He assists clients with payment and performance bond matters, lien filings and contract and payment claims.

His experience includes:

• representation of local County in significant US EPA civil enforcement claims related to stormwater and UST matters
• representation of a building product manufacturer in successfully obtaining payment on a million dollar payment bond claim for an uncompleted New York project
• representation of a municipality in an ERP brownfields investigation project that lead to one of the largest New York scrap yard cleanups under the State inactive hazardous waste program and successfully lead to the parcel being remediated and made development ready
• environmental due diligence matters for clients seeking to sell or acquire commercial properties and businesses ranging from one location to multiple sites spread throughout various states

George has been named to the Best Lawyers in America since 2015 and was named 2021 Best Lawyer for Environmental Law. He has been selected to the Upstate New York Super Lawyers list since 2021. 

George has been privileged to coach both travel soccer and hockey in various western New York clubs.   He continues to play hockey and participates in the annual 11 Day Power Play Community Shift fundraiser. 

Construction & Demolition, Municipalities, Real Estate and Environmental  

New York State Bar Association; NYS Bar Association Environmental Law Section (Petroleum Spills Committee and Hazardous Waste, Site Cleanup and Brownfields Committee); Bar Association of Erie County; Erie County Bar Association Environmental Law Committee (Past Chair);  Air and Waste Management Association; NYCOM;  Clarence NY Planning Board;  NAIOP Upstate (past board member).  

New York State and U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York.

Valparaiso University School of Law, J.D.

Hartwick College, B.A., cum laude