Global law firm K&L Gates LLP has expanded its Austin office with the addition of environmental and administrative law practitioners Bill Moltz, Steve Morton, and Janessa Glenn. The three lawyers join K&L Gates from Austin’s Moltz Morton & Glenn, LLP, where they together represented publicly traded and privately held companies in the industrial, manufacturing, agriculture, oil and gas, chemical, refining, real estate, waste management, and land development sectors, among others. They regularly represent clients before state and federal regulatory agencies including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the Texas Railroad Commission, Texas Department of Transportation, and Texas Health and Human Services Commission.
Along with enhancing K&L Gates’ Texas presence, the team’s addition also strengthens the connections between the regulatory and commercial capabilities in the region, which include such areas as energy, corporate, government and legislative, private equity, securities, outsourcing, technology, oil and gas, bankruptcy, healthcare, commercial litigation, banking and finance, construction, and labor and employment, among others.
“We are delighted to have Bill, Steve, and Janessa join the K&L Gates team,” said Jack M. Erskine Jr., administrative partner of K&L Gates’ Austin office. “Their decades of experience in the environmental and regulatory arena will enhance our ability to serve clients in Texas and other jurisdictions at the local, state, and federal levels.”
With more than three and a half decades of experience in administrative and environmental law and a chemical engineering background, of counsel Bill Moltz provides regulatory counsel relating to the design, construction, operation, and licensing of industrial, manufacturing, and commercial facilities; mergers, acquisitions, and other transactions; and gaming law. He advises on issues involving water rights and regulation by groundwater districts and aquifer authorities, Superfund site and other property contamination matters, and race track and pari-mutuel wagering regulation. In addition to his other state and federal agency representations, Moltz represents clients before the Texas Racing Commission.
With 30 years of environmental law experience and a background in hydrogeology, partner Steve Morton advises on a wide range of environmental issues, including Superfund sites, oil and gas waste management, waste remediation, enforcement, and transactional issues involving the sale and acquisition of contaminated properties, as well as the management, purchase, lease, and sale of groundwater and surface water in Texas. He represents clients in regulatory and statutory matters before administrative agencies and the Texas Legislature. Responsible for environmental due diligence and contract review for more than $1 billion of M&A, IPO, financing, and asset transfers in Texas, California, Florida, and nearly two dozen other states, Morton also is general counsel to the Industry Council on the Environment, a trade association of corporations in the transportation, communications, petroleum refining/marketing, and utility industries.
Counsel Janessa Glenn, with more than 15 years of legal experience, advises on a variety of administrative and environmental regulatory and litigation issues, with a focus on the management and conveyance of surface and groundwater rights, Superfund cost recovery, and appellate issues before the Texas Courts of Appeal and the Texas Supreme Court. She represents clients before state agencies, including contested case proceedings, and in state court related to the judicial review of agency decisions.
“We are excited about joining K&L Gates and look forward to combining our well-known Texas-based environmental and administrative practice with the firm’s highly respected and broad international platform,” said Moltz and Morton.
Source: www.klgates.com
