CHARLESTON – Lewis Glasser Casey & Rollins PLLC (www.lgcr.com) has hired Joseph L. Jenkins, formerly Senior Counsel for the state Department of Environmental Protection, to expand the law firm’s environmental practice and services.
Joseph has joined the firm as an associate, and his practice focuses mainly on energy and natural resources law, environmental law, legislation, rulemaking and litigation with an emphasis in oil and natural gas, mining and quarrying, including SMCRA, Clean Water Act and state and federal environmental permitting, compliance and enforcement.
Jenkins previously served as Senior Counsel for the state Department of Environmental Protection and served as Counsel to the state Senate committees on Energy, Industry and Mining and Transportation and Infrastructure during the 2011 Legislative Session. He also is familiar with federal criminal law, having served as a CJA panel attorney for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia for several years. Jenkins began his legal career as a law clerk to the Honorable H. L. Kirkpatrick III, Circuit Judge of Raleigh County, West Virginia.
Jenkins’ more recent experience includes:
•Successfully defending a challenge to the State’s notice, comment and appeal procedures for surface owners with regards to the issuance of oil and natural gas well permits before the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia;
•Preparing an amicus brief on behalf of the Interstate Mining Compact Commission, the state Department of Environmental Protection, the Commonwealth of Virginia and the State of Alaska for filing in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit in support of Farrell-Cooper Mining Company and Oklahoma Department of Mines’ challenge to the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement’s use of the 10-day notice process for permit defects under SMCRA;
•Being actively involved in the administrative appeal of and challenge to the state Environmental Quality Board’s decision regarding conductivity, TDS and sulfate associated with coal mining operations;
•Successfully defending challenges to NPDES and SMCRA permits issued by the state Department of Environmental Protection;
•Being actively involved in the legislative and rulemaking processes regarding the state Natural Gas Horizontal Well Control Act, W. Va. Code § 22-6A-1, et seq; and
•Being actively involved in the successful representation of a defendant in a 44-count federal indictment that charged 55 defendants with numerous offenses including RICO, kidnapping, robbery, conspiracy, gambling, guns and drugs. And serving as a liaison for defense counsel in this expansive case to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia on matters relating to discovery and CJA management.
Jenkins attended Concord College in Athens, where he received his undergraduate degrees, summa cum laude, in Biology (B.S.) and Geography (B.A.). He then obtained his law degree from the University of Oregon School of Law, earning a certificate in environmental and natural resources law. While in law school, Jenkins served as co-director of the Public Interest Environmental Law Conference.
“As one of the premier energy law firms in the Appalachian Basin, we wanted to enhance Lewis Glasser’s full-service capabilities with Joe’s unique environmental law and regulatory knowledge,” said Nick Casey, managing member. “Joe’s background in regulatory matters, litigation and legislative rule-making will serve our clients well.”
Casey noted that over the past year Lewis Glasser has expanded its legal capabilities with the hiring of several new attorneys, many of whom are part of the firm’s growing natural gas and energy practice.
Lewis Glasser was selected as a Preeminent Law Firm by Martindale-Hubbell, one of the few West Virginia firms to achieve this status. Lewis Glasser has also received Martindale-Hubbell’s highest AV rating and has attorneys listed as SuperLawyers and Best Lawyers for oil/natural gas and energy/natural resources work.
The firm also maintains an active government relations practice representing natural gas clients, among others, before the West Virginia Legislature and in Washington D.C. The government relations practice is LGCR Government Solutions, LLC (http://www.lgcrgovernmentsolutions.com).
The law firm has offices in Charleston and Morgantown and has expanded recently in Ohio.