News & Insights

Lightfoot Partner Johnny Johnson Authors Law360 Article on Pheromone Pesticides

September 13, 2017

Lightfoot, Franklin & White LLC partner Johnny Johnson and summer associate Christian Kerr have authored an article for Law360 about the legal and regulatory implications of pheromone pesticides.

The article, titled “Navigating the Legal and Regulatory Hurdles to Bring Pheromone Pesticides to Market,” examines these unique biochemical pesticides and their influence on the agricultural industry. Pheromone pesticides protect crops by disrupting the mating of destructive pests without killing the insects.

“The EPA has recognized...and adjusted its review of pheromone-based products to recognize their benign environmental footprint,” write Johnson and Kerr. “The ease, relatively speaking, of registration of these products should encourage their more widespread use in the near future. Products that kill nothing, and still protect vital crops, could become a vital part of our agricultural economy.”

Johnson focuses his practice on environmental and toxic tort defense and was one of the first lawyers in the Southeast to focus on environmental litigation. For decades, his book, “The Pesticide Litigation Manual,” has been a go-to reference for defense and plaintiffs’ lawyers across the country handling environmental cases. It is still in print today as “Defending Pesticides in Litigation.”

Kerr is a third-year law student at Vanderbilt University Law School. He was a Lightfoot summer associate in 2016 and 2017.