I recently came across a little publication entitled, "Sue the Lender." It was the script for a video training program prepared for lending officers. As I glanced through it, I noticed that it said nothing about environmental liability.

This example illustrates two points. First, lenders are just beginning to recognize their important environmental liability. Second, lenders are being sued for many reasons in many different substantive areas, of which environmental law is just one. The business relationship that lenders maintain with their borrowers has exposed and is continuing to expose them to liability.