Michael Arch, the principal of Concordia Pacific, has twenty-nine years of experience practicing in the fields of town planning, local government and pollution law. Michael has extensive background working in the public sector in New South Wales, and can provide an insider’s knowledge to solving a wide range of problems, including obtaining development approvals, and dealing with enforcement orders, prosecutions, and other compliance problems involving the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act, the Local Government Act, and the Protection of the Environment Operations Act.
Michael has unique legal experience. He has practiced intensively before the Land and Environment Court, the Supreme Court, and the Local Courts of NSW since April 2002. Before forming Concordia Pacific, Michael served as a Senior Legal Officer with the New South Wales Environment Protection Agency, as Senior Solicitor in Sydney City Council’s Prosecutions Unit, and as a solicitor in private practice. Michael has also served as co-editor of the leading environmental law reporting service in NSW, the Environmental Responsibilities Law Service, and has been honoured with the grant of the John Hennessy Fellowship by the NSW Law Society.
Before migrating to Australia with his family, Michael practiced for over twenty years as a trial lawyer for the New York City office of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Resources. Michael has comprehensive knowledge of pollution law, including air and water pollution control, regulation of mining and waste disposal, and clean up of contaminated lands. Michael has handed many high profile pollution cases in the course of his career, and his accomplishments have been recognized through an award for Special Merit from the Governor of Pennsylvania and numerous additional awards for Outstanding Achievement from the US EPA.
Michael enjoys spending his leisure time exploring the beaches of NSW and the Blue Mountains with his family, looking after his Labrador retrievers, kayaking in Sydney Harbour, bicycling, running and keeping up with current events.