Natural Resources Symposium

KEGAN A. BROWN, J.D., Partner, Latham & Watkins LLP

Kegan A. Brown, J.D., is a partner at Latham & Watkins LLP in the Litigation & Trial Department, based in New York. He represents clients in complex environmental regulatory and litigation matters, particularly involving contaminated sediment sites, natural resource damages, toxic torts, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Mr. Brown also advises buyers, sellers, lenders, and underwriters on a broad range of environmental issues in mergers, acquisitions, and financing transactions.  He is recognized by several publications and directories as a leading environmental and toxic tort defense lawyer, including Chambers USA, The Legal 500 US, and Law360. He received his B.S. from the College of New Jersey and his J.D. from Rutgers University School of Law.

JOHN GARDELLA, Shareholder, CMBG3 Law

John Gardella is a Shareholder at CMBG3 Law and a trial attorney with over 20 years of litigation experience (17 of which is in environmental litigation), and over 75 cases tried to verdict. His practice focuses on environmental litigation, risk assessment and compliance matters, as well as the litigation of products liability and toxic torts cases. Currently, more than half of his time is devoted to PFAS matters for clients, including national litigation management for a Fortune 500 company. Mr. Gardella’s environmental work includes representation of companies for compliance and litigation matters in CERCLA, Safe Drinking Water Act, Clean Water Act, PFAS and numerous state level environmental regulatory matters. He advises companies of all sizes on PFAS risk strategies, including several Fortune 500 companies. In addition, Mr. Gardella’s product liability and toxic torts experience involves the litigation of over a thousand cases. He has taken hundreds of expert and fact witness depositions, prepared corporate witnesses for trial testimony, negotiated multi-million-dollaMr. Gardella holds a B.A. and J.D. from Vanderbilt University.

BARBARA J. GOLDSMITH, Executive Director, Ad-Hoc Industry Natural Resource Management Group; President, Barbara J. Goldsmith & Company LLC

Barbara J. Goldsmith is Executive Director of the Ad-Hoc Industry Natural Resource Management Group and facilitated its founding in 1988 with a group of major multinational corporations. She is also President of Barbara J. Goldsmith & Company LLC, which has provided consulting services to major companies, law firms and others for over 25 years on high-level national and international energy and environmental policy matters and corporate environmental management strategy. In 2005, Ms. Goldsmith was appointed by the Interior Secretary to serve on the Department’s Natural Resource Damage Assessment and Restoration (NRDAR) Advisory Committee.  The seminal book, The EU Environmental Liability Directive: A Commentary, of which she was co-editor and a co-author, was published by Oxford University Press. Ms. Goldsmith has had substantial experience with business and industry associations, major companies in all industrial sectors, the US Government, international agencies, EU Member States and other countries worldwide. She is a frequent speaker on environmental, energy, and natural resource topics and collaborates with a wide set of both public and private sector entities. Ms. Goldsmith was a Delegate to the United Nations Rio +20 Corporate Sustainability Forum and participated in the BASD Business Day Rio +20. She has worked for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris, France, and she is the author of numerous publications on environmental regulatory issues affecting industry. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from The George Washington University and a Master of City Planning in Environmental Analysis from Harvard University, a joint degree program between the Harvard Schools of Public Health and Design and she is also an alumna of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

TOM GULBRANSEN, Program Manager, Battelle Environment & Infrastructure

Tom Gulbransen is the Program Director, Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure, Computer and Information Science and Engineering (NSF) with Battelle. He is the lead cognizant Program Officer for the Advanced Cyberinfrastructure Coordination Ecosystem of Services & Support and multiple investments in cyberinfrastructure workforce development. Mr. Gulbransen is responsible for strategy and development of solicitations, review, and funding recommendations for cyberinfrastructure, research and or education, as well as identifying and developing integrative programs across NSF directorates and through interagency collaborations. He has decades of experience in large organizations’ project management methodology, requisite training, and PMP certification. His expertise includes project management insights from a non-profit organization also inform engagements aimed at promoting viable business models toward more sustainable cyberinfrastructure. He received his B.S. from the University of Road Island and holds an M.S. from Stonybrook University and C.S.S. from Harvard University.

MIRANDA HENNING, Managing Principal, Business Director, Health and Ecology, Integral Consulting Inc.

Miranda Henning helps clients in the regulated, legal, governmental, and nonprofit communities quantify and mitigate the risks and damages posed by chemicals in the environment, home, workplace, diet, and consumer products.  A certified senior ecologist and Board Certified Environmental Scientist (BCES, ecotoxicology), she provides expert testimony, conducts technical analyses, offers strategic advice, and shares findings and recommendations with diverse audiences.  Ms. Henning has developed and applied innovative techniques to characterize the effects of environmental releases of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), petroleum hydrocarbons, PAHs, polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs), PCBs, mercury and other metals, and pesticides. Her work often takes the form of natural resource damage assessments (NRDAs), risk assessments, safety assessments, feasibility studies, and vulnerability assessments. Ms. Henning has contributed to nearly 100 guidance documents, scientific publications, and technical presentations.

THOMAS PEARCE, Associate, Latham & Watkins LLP

Thomas Pearce is an associate in the New York office of Latham & Watkins. Mr. Pearce is a member of the Environment, Land & Resources Practice and Litigation & Trial Department. He represents clients in environmental, commercial, products liability, and toxic tort litigations. He also advises clients on environmental regulatory and transactional issues relating to federal environmental laws, including the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), the Clean Air Act (CAA) and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), as well as their state equivalents. He has represented clients across a variety of sectors, including manufacturing, chemicals, paint and coatings, and oil and gas. Mr. Pearce is also an active member of the firm’s pro bono program and was a recipient of the firm’s 2020 Robert M. Dell Prize for Extraordinary Pro Bono Service as part of a team that successfully litigated Voting Rights Act claims in the East Ramapo Central School District in New York. He holds a B.A. from the University of North Carolina and a J.D. from the New York University School of Law.

KRISTIN ROBROCK, Ph.D., P.E., Managing Engineer, Environmental Sciences, Exponent

Kristin Robrock, Ph.D., is a Managing Engineer in Exponent’s Environmental Sciences practice based in Oakland, California. Dr. Robrock is an environmental engineer who specializes in the fate and transport of chemicals in the environment. Her expertise is in emerging contaminants, including PFAS and brominated flame retardants, as well as conventional contaminants such as chlorinated solvents in soil and groundwater. She specializes in environmental forensics, reconstructing environmental releases to determine the sources, timing, and mechanisms of contaminant releases and identifying other potential sources of contamination. She obtained her B.S. in Earth and Environmental Engineering from Columbia University, and her M.S., and Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley.

PAUL STIFTER, Principal, Economic & Complex Analytics, Roux

Ryan Stifter, M.S., is a Principal in Roux’s Economic & Complex Analytics practice based in Oakland, California. Mr. Stifter has nearly 20 years of experience conducting applied economic analysis for complex litigation, insurance coverage, environmental regulation and enforcement, natural resource damage assessment (NRDA), and strategic business decisions. His NRDA expertise is in the application and interpretation of market and nonmarket economic valuation methods, service equivalency analysis, and statistical modeling for injury quantification. His damage assessment experience includes major oil releases to marine environments, legacy hazardous substance releases, groundwater contamination, PFAS releases, nitrate pollution, and wildfires. Mr. Stifter obtained a B.S. in Managerial Economics and an M.S. in Agricultural and Resource Economics from the University of California, Davis.

PAUL STOFA, Chief Advisor, Office of the Deputy Commissioner, Legal and Regulatory Affairs, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection

Paul Stofa serves as Chief Advisor to DEP’s Legal & Regulatory Affairs team. As Chief Advisor, Paul is the primary contact on a variety of legal matters involving the Department and helps coordinate legal activities between the Department’s leadership team and the Office of Attorney General/Division of Law. He is the principal liaison for the Department when DEP works with special outside counsel, in conjunction with the Office of the New Jersey Attorney General. Paul additionally oversees several DEP legal and regulatory staff, including the offices of Legal Affairs, Administrative Hearings & Dispute Resolution and Transactions & Public Land Administration. Paul came to DEP in 2021, after having worked in the state Division of Law’s Environmental Enforcement and Environmental Justice Section for 18 years. From 2003 to 2021, he primarily handled cost recovery and natural resource damages (NRD) matters on behalf of the DEP and other state agencies. As a Deputy Attorney General, Mr. Stofa litigated matters in state Superior Court and in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey. Before joining the Division of Law, Paul clerked at the Office of Administrative Law, and previously worked as a legal intern at the federal Environmental Protection Agency-Region 2, and at Hess Corporation in Woodbridge.  Paul received his Juris Doctorate from Seton Hall University School of Law. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Policy from Rutgers University’s Cook College.