EMAIL:
PHONE: 404-812-0126
Office Address:
1200 Peachtree Street, N.E.
Suite 600
Atlanta, GA 30309
1914 4th Avenue North
The Forbes Building
Suite 400
Birmingham, Alabama 35203
Columbia University
(J.D., 2005)
Williams College
(B.A., 2002)
Georgia
Alabama
Pennsylvania
Illinois
Past Chair, Environmental Law Section of the Georgia Bar (2017)
Jennifer engages in a wide variety of environmental, energy, toxic tort and product liability matters, primarily in litigation, regulatory and compliance arenas. Her litigation experience mostly involves disputes over wastewater, stormwater, contaminated groundwater, or storage gas migrating or flowing across property boundaries. These lawsuits are brought under CERCLA, the Clean Water Act (CWA), state counterpart statutes, and state common laws including nuisance, trespass and negligence. She also defends clients in state and federal regulatory enforcement and cost recovery actions and in toxic tort and product liability actions, including various multidistrict and mass litigation involving PFAS.
Additionally, Jennifer assists companies across the nation in their environmental investigation and remediation efforts, particularly at large multi-PRP Superfund sites, including the diverse permitting, contracting, allocation and regulatory aspects of managing such projects. She has particular expertise managing the cleanup of properties contaminated by former manufactured gas plants.
Jennifer particularly enjoys representing clients participating in government rulemaking processes and rule challenges, including greenhouse gas regulations under the Clean Air Act, PFAS legislation and regulations, the definition of Waters of the United States (WOTUS) under the Clean Water Act, National Priority List (NPL) listings, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) rules, state water quality standards, federal MACT rules, and Endangered Species Act (ESA) rules and determinations. She also has a wide-ranging appellate and constitutional litigation practice, including filing numerous amici briefs on behalf of companies, coalitions, and public interest groups.
Finally, she regularly assists clients in navigating the myriad environmental laws, regulations, and litigation risks encountered in routine operations, in particular PFAS-in-products bans, restrictions, and reporting obligations, as well as permitting and compliance with the CWA, CERCLA, RCRA, CAA (including Title V), NEPA, ESA, Emergency Planning & Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA), Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), and environmental health and safety regulations, as well as state counterpart and related regulations. She has further advised several companies with respect to penalty mitigation and elimination through voluntary disclosure.
Jennifer received her J.D. from Columbia Law School in New York in 2005. While at Columbia, she served as the Assistant Executive Editor of the Columbia Business Law Review and was a student clerk for Hon. Joanna Seybert, U. S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. She received her Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, from Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, in 2002.
Jennifer joined KMCL Law in 2011 after practicing environmental law and litigation at King & Spalding LLP in Atlanta and Mayer Brown LLP in Chicago.
Past Chair, Environmental Law Section of the Georgia Bar (2017)
Speaker, “PFAS Symposium,” (March 29, 2022)
Federal Regulatory Update, Waters of the U.S. (“WOTUS”), Southeastern Environmental Law & Regulation Conference, Destin, FL (June 16, 2017)
Clean Water Act Jurisdictional Pandemonium, Perspectives on Georgia’s Environment: A Publication of the Environmental Law Section of the State Bar of Georgia (Fall 2016)
Waters of the U.S. (“WOTUS”) Litigation and Rule Update, “Waters, Waters Everywhere,” Georgia Environmental Conference, Jekyll Island, GA (August 25, 2016)
CERCLA: Fight or Flight (Litigate or Settle), State Bar of Georgia, Environmental Law Section Summer Seminar, Hilton Head, SC (July 24-25, 2015)
Adjacency, Interrupted: Summit Petroleum Corporation v. U.S. EPA, Perspectives on Georgia’s Environment: A Publication of the Environmental Law Section of the State Bar of Georgia (Winter 2013)
Drafted comments during the rulemaking process and engaged in litigation challenging the final rules issued under the CWA (including WOTUS), CAA (including the boiler MACT and the Clean Power Plan), ESA (including greater sage-grouse habitat), and CERCLA (including NPL listings), most notably:
-Genuine Parts Co. v. EPA, 890 F.3d 304 (D.C. Cir. 2018) – successfully litigated the removal of a client’s property from the National Priorities List (NPL) for unlawful listing
-Nat’l Ass’n of Mfrs. v. Dep’t of Def., 138 S. Ct. 617 (2018) – In litigation over EPA’s Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rulemaking, filed a successful cert petition for review of the D.C. Circuit’s jurisdictional decision and achieved a U.S. Supreme Court victory requiring all challenges be brought in district court per the letter of the CWA.
Represent a manufacturer of firefighting foam in over two thousand cases consolidated in multidistrict litigation before the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina over the presence of certain per- or polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in aqueous film-forming foams (AFFF), MDL No. 2873.
Advise gas utility companies on issues related to the remediation of former manufactured gas plant sites, including litigation and negotiations amongst CERCLA PRP groups and government agencies; related permitting and contracting; securing restrictive covenants; and obtaining site delisting from the NPL
Represent numerous property owners in litigation with adjoining property owners in trespass and nuisance suits involving stormwater, chemical migration and deposition, and odor complaints
Represented a flavoring chemicals manufacturer in toxic tort lawsuits brought by plant workers and consumers in courts across the country
Successfully defended against several CAA permit and NEPA challenges from citizens groups, including through appeals, for example, Ex parte GASP, 285 So. 3d 228, 229 (Ala. 2019) (successfully defended the Jefferson County Board of Health’s Air Pollution Control Program against an Alabama Administrative Procedure Act challenge)
Numerous other successful appellate court litigation, including:
-Stratford Holding, LLC v. Fog Cap Retail Inv’rs LLC, 516 F. App’x 874 (11th Cir. 2013) – achieved the reversal of a dismissal in an appeal turning on the meaning of a “no-listing letter” from the Georgia EPD
-Lloyd v. GMC, 201 Fed. Appx. 152 (4th Cir. 2006); Burke v. GMC, No. 06-11423, 2007 U.S. App. LEXIS 4542 (11th Cir. Feb. 28, 2007) – drafted appellee briefs filed in the Fourth and Eleventh Circuits that resulted in summary judgment awards on our clients’ behalf being upheld