Legal Spotlight: Babst Calland Expands Energy, Environment Work
Bloomberg Environment
(by Chuck McCutcheon)
Pittsburgh-based Babst, Calland, Clements and Zomnir PC is making moves to expand its energy and environment practice.
The firm recently brought aboard Julie Domike as a shareholder in its Washington, D.C., office. Domike’s background includes working as an attorney for the EPA, and she has represented numerous clients in negotiations with that agency and the Justice Department.
It also this month hired Gina Falaschi, who had worked at Haynes and Boone LLP, as an associate in its D.C. office. In addition to counseling on compliance issues, Falaschi has worked with energy companies in developing new projects and advised clients on regulatory issues.
The hirings came partly in response to client requests to provide environmental and mobile-source emissions services before the EPA, California Air Resources Board, and other regulatory agencies, said Donald C. Bluedorn II, Babst Calland’s managing shareholder.
“We think it’s a natural fit, because we do a tremendous amount of stationary-source emissions work,” Bluedorn said of the hiring of Domike and Falaschi.
Babst Calland also has grown with the boom in the Marcellus Shale in the Northeast and has decided to open an office in Houston. That office will initially focus on mineral title work and eventually expand into other areas, Bluedorn said.