Overview
Building the Cases That Can Change Communities
Some of the most important cases begin before anyone walks into a courtroom.
Singleton Schreiber's Impact Litigation & Policy Group identifies emerging environmental, public health, consumer, and community harms and develops innovative legal strategies to address them.
Working at the intersection of law, science, public policy, and community advocacy, our team investigates potential harms, builds relationships with affected communities and organizations, evaluates the science, and tests legal theories before litigation begins.
Our goal is simple: develop strong cases that protect communities, advance accountability, and drive meaningful change.
From Emerging Harm to Meaningful Action
A neighborhood may be experiencing persistent noise or pollution from new infrastructure. A community may see rising health concerns without understanding the source. Consumers may be subjected to unfair practices that have never been meaningfully challenged. Historically underserved communities may experience disparities that demand closer investigation.
The Impact Litigation & Policy Group brings together legal analysis and scientific research with policy and community insight to determine what is happening, who is being harmed, who may be responsible, and whether the law provides a path toward accountability.
We take promising matters from initial investigation through legal and factual development. When a matter is ready for litigation, we work with our litigation teams and, where appropriate, co-counsel to move the case forward.
Where Law, Science, Policy, and Community Meet
Impact litigation often begins with a question: Why is this happening, and what can be done about it?
Answering that question can require expertise well beyond the law.
Our team builds relationships across communities and disciplines, bringing together people with firsthand knowledge of an issue and experts who can help determine its cause, scope, and potential legal implications.
That can mean working with community leaders and nonprofit organizations to identify emerging concerns, scientists and researchers to evaluate environmental or public health evidence, policymakers to understand regulatory gaps, and attorneys to develop new legal theories.
Together, we investigate the facts, evaluate potential claims, and build the foundation necessary to pursue meaningful action.
Areas of Focus
The Impact Litigation & Policy Group continually evaluates emerging matters where litigation, policy, or community advocacy may provide a path forward. Current areas of investigation and development include:
Environmental & Toxic Exposure
Communities should not have to bear the consequences of pollution, contamination, or hazardous exposure without answers.
Our work may include investigating:
- Potential connections between environmental exposures and serious health conditions
- Contaminated water, soil, or other natural resources
- Toxic exposures requiring epidemiological or toxicological analysis
- Corporate or infrastructure activity that may threaten public health, property, or quality of life
Our team works with scientific and medical experts to determine whether available evidence supports a potential claim and what additional investigation may be needed.
Data Centers & Infrastructure
The rapid expansion of data centers and other large-scale infrastructure projects can have significant consequences for surrounding communities.
Current areas of investigation include:
- Persistent noise and potential nuisance impacts
- Increased water consumption and pressure on local resources
- Electrical demand and grid strain
- Environmental review and land-use concerns
- Other impacts on communities surrounding large-scale developments
We work with communities, experts, policymakers, and legal partners to understand these impacts and identify potential paths toward accountability.
Civil Rights & Consumer Protection
Unequal treatment can be embedded in systems people interact with every day.
Our team investigates potential disparities involving:
- Availability or quality of essential services
- Pricing and consumer practices
- Delivery and service outcomes in historically underserved communities
- Financial products and lending practices
- Policies or business practices that may create broader patterns of unequal treatment
Rather than looking only at individual incidents, we examine whether those experiences reveal a larger pattern that may warrant legal or policy action.
Public Health & Emerging Harms
Sometimes a potential health threat becomes visible long before its cause is clear.
Our team investigates circumstances in which environmental conditions, infrastructure, products, or corporate conduct may be contributing to illness or other harm.
That work can involve identifying patterns within affected populations, evaluating possible sources of exposure, consulting scientific and medical experts, and determining whether the available evidence supports further legal investigation.
Servicemember & Military Consumer Protection
Those who serve our country are entitled to the protections the law provides.
The group investigates emerging issues affecting servicemembers and military families, including lending practices and contractual provisions that may conflict with federal protections.
One area under review involves mandatory arbitration provisions in servicemember lending agreements and their compliance with the Military Lending Act.
Policy and Community Solutions Beyond the Courtroom
Not every community challenge begins or ends with litigation.
The Impact Litigation & Policy Group also works on initiatives designed to create stronger protections before harm occurs or secure meaningful benefits for communities affected by major development.
One area of this work is the development and support of Community Benefits Agreements and Community Benefits Plans. These agreements can address infrastructure investment, local workforce and economic opportunities, environmental protections, meaningful community participation, responsible development, and long-term benefits for affected communities.
By bringing stakeholders together early, these efforts can give communities a stronger voice in projects that may reshape the places where they live and work.
Collaboration Creates Stronger Cases
The people closest to an issue are often the first to recognize that something is wrong.
That is why relationships are central to the Impact Litigation & Policy Group's work.
We collaborate with community organizations, nonprofit groups, researchers, scientists, policymakers, attorneys, and other advocates who share our commitment to protecting communities and holding powerful interests accountable.
These partnerships help us identify emerging harms earlier, uncover information that might otherwise be overlooked, strengthen scientific and factual research, and develop legal strategies capable of creating broader change.
They can also surface issues that might never reach a law firm through traditional channels. A concern raised by a community organization, a pattern identified by a researcher, or an emerging issue recognized by another attorney can become the starting point for a larger investigation.
Is There an Issue You'd Like to Bring to Our Attention?
Meaningful litigation often begins when someone recognizes a problem that deserves a closer look.
If you are aware of an emerging environmental, public health, civil rights, consumer, or community issue, the Impact Litigation & Policy Group wants to hear from you.
We welcome information from affected individuals and communities, nonprofit and advocacy organizations, researchers and subject matter experts, attorneys and potential co-counsel, and others with firsthand knowledge of an emerging concern.
You do not need to know whether there is already a viable legal claim. That is what our team is here to investigate.
