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Area of Emphasis
Kevin Garber is a shareholder and chairman of the Environmental, Energy and Natural Resources Group of Babst, Calland, Clements and Zomnir, P.C. He practices out of the Firm’s Pittsburgh and State College offices. Mr. Garber has concentrated much of his practice in the areas of water pollution law, contaminated sites remediation and reuse, and natural resources law. Regarding water law, he regularly handles NPDES permitting matters and appeals; defends citizens’ suits under the federal Clean Water Act and similar state laws; and represents landowners and others with respect to groundwater protection issues. Regarding natural resources, he represents many mining and oil and gas companies on a broad range of issues including leading, permitting, and development including development of Marcellus Shale gas reserves. He also leads the firm’s municipal environmental services practice area, in which a substantial part of his current practice concentrates on sewage facilities planning and permitting, storm water management, and related development issues facing developers, municipalities and municipal authorities. He serves as special environmental counsel to many municipalities, authorities and developers in western Pennsylvania.
Regarding contaminated sites, a significant part of Mr. Garber’s practice involves the cleanup and redevelopment of industrial sites under federal and state hazardous waste, solid waste, and brownfields laws. In Pennsylvania, for example, he regularly counsels clients in the purchase, sale and cleanup of property using Act 2 to address environmental concerns. He also regularly conducts and reviews environmental audits of various types of industrial, commercial and mining properties for buyers, sellers, lenders and trustees, and negotiates environmental provisions of transactions, contracts and deeds. Mr. Garber also concentrates much of his practice in the area of natural resource development, oil and gas, and mining law. In the mining industry, Mr. Garber has litigated post-mining discharge treatment orders, citizen group challenges to mining permits, and bond release denials. He counsels mining clients on a wide range of environmental matters affecting the mining industry, such as water and air permits, bonding, and treatment trusts. Mr. Garber regularly counsels oil and gas production, storage and transportation companies on the interplay of other environmental regulations on their operations and frequently negotiates environmental provisions in transactions involving natural resources.
In addition to his environmental practice, Mr. Garber is also a member of the Firm’s Intellectual Property Services Group. He is a registered patent attorney and prosecutes patent and trademark applications before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for clients in the consumer products, health care, electronics and other industries. He has litigated trademark infringement cases, and also has prepared and negotiated intellectual property licenses and related agreements.
Background
Mr. Garber graduated with Distinction from The Pennsylvania State University with a B.S. in Biology/Chemistry, took his M.S. in Oceanography and Limnology from the University of Wisconsin, his Ph.D. in Ecology from the University of Pittsburgh and his law degree from the Duquesne University School of Law, where he was a member of the Duquesne University Law Review. Mr. Garber’s graduate and doctoral work researched point and non-point source pollutant loadings to lakes and the development of remedial alternatives.
Memberships and Affiliations
Mr. Garber is admitted to practice in various state and federal courts and before the United States Patent and Trademark Office. He is a member of the Allegheny County, Pennsylvania and American Bar Associations. He serves on the Council of the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s Environmental, Mineral and Natural Resources Law Section and as the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s alternate representative to the Department of Environmental Protection’s Sewage Advisory Committee. He is a past Chairman of the Environmental Section of the Allegheny County Bar Association. Mr. Garber serves on Board of Directors of the Local Government Academy, a nonprofit organization which serves elected officials and governmental entities in southwestern Pennsylvania. He has been ranked among Pennsylvania’s top environmental lawyers in Chambers USA’s America’s Leading Business Lawyers since 2004. Mr. Garber has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America® in the Environmental Section since 2005 and in the Water Section since 2007. In addition, he has been recognized as one of Pennsylvania’s top lawyers since 2005, according to an annual survey published in Philadelphia magazine.
Mr. Garber is an adjunct professor of law at the Duquesne University School of Law where he teaches courses in environmental law and litigation and is an adjunct faculty member in the Bayer School of Natural and Environmental Sciences at Duquesne University, where he teaches courses on environmental law, policy and forensics in the graduate school. He serves on the Advisory Committee to the Duquesne University Center for Environmental Research and Education. Mr. Garber is the chairman and president of the board of directors of the Allegheny Land Trust. He also serves on an advisory committee to the Three Rivers Wet Weather Demonstration Program, an Allegheny County non-profit entity which is helping to coordinate a regional response to wet weather water quality issues in the County.
Publications/Presentations
Mr. Garber is a frequent lecturer on environmental law. He has spoken at seminars conducted by the American Bar Association, Pennsylvania Bar Institute, the Allegheny County Bar Association and the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry and has developed specialty seminars on emerging environmental law matters. Mr. Garber has also published many articles on environmental law and environmental science in various journals, newsletters and other publications. A recent listing includes the following:
- Panelist, “Environmental Hearing Board Roundtable," Pennsylvania Bar Institute Environmental Law Forum, Harrisburg, April 2008.
- Author and Presenter, “Dispute Resolution in Multi-Party Environmental Projects," American Bar Association Section of Environment, Energy and Resources Fall Meeting, Pittsburgh, September 2007.
- Presenter, “Redeveloping Pittsburgh’s Infrastructure," Local Government Academy Conference, May 3, 2007.
- Presenter, “Cleanup Liability for Hazardous Waste Generators," CHWMEG Semiannual Meeting, Reno, April 25, 2007.
- Author and Presenter, “Storm Water and Real Estate Development," Pennsylvania Bar Institute, No. 207-4044, April 11, 2007.
- Presenter, “Contracting with Waste Management Companies," CHWMEG Semiannual Meeting, New York City, November 2006.
- Author and presenter, “MS4 and Storm Water Update," Eighth Annual 3 Rivers Wet Weather Forum, September 2006.
- Author and presenter, “Chesapeake Bay Tributary Strategy Update," Centre County Chamber of Business and Industry, August 2006.
- Author and presenter, “Storm Water Update," Lorman Educational Services, October 2005 and 2006.
- Author and presenter, “Effective Use of Expert Witnesses," Pennsylvania Council of Professional Geologists, June 2005.
- Author and presenter, “Environmental Business Risks and Insurance Solutions," Pennsylvania Bar Institute, Nos. 2005-4043, May 2005.
- Author, moderator and presenter, “Developer’s Dilemmas," Pennsylvania Bar Institute, Nos. 2003-3149, 2004-3624, 2005-3930, April 2003-2006 (annual state-wide seminar on land use development issues).
- Author and presenter, “Pennsylvania Act 2 Update," Western Pennsylvania Brownfields Forum, September 2004.
- Presenter, “Environmental Law and Forensic Evidence," presentation to the Wecht Institute of Forensic Science and Law, August 2004-2006.
- Author and presenter, “Land Use Update," National Business Institute, December 2003.
- Co-author and presenter, “Water Law Update," Lorman Educational Services, September 2003.
- Presented testimony to the Pennsylvania Senate Environmental and Natural Resources Committee on the status of and recommendations to improve Pennsylvania’s brownfields law (Act 2), May 2003.
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