Anna R. Hosack recently joined Babst Calland as an associate in the Public Sector Group of Babst Calland. Ms. Hosack’s practice focuses primarily on municipal and land use law with a concentration in general municipal, zoning, subdivision and land development, and code enforcement. Ms. Hosack participated in the Firm’s Summer Associate’s program. She is a 2022 graduate of Duquesne University School of Law.
Babst Calland has earned certification from the Allegheny County Bar Association as part of the inaugural cohort of the ALLY Initiative.
The ALLY certificate was presented in a graduation ceremony last week. Babst Calland attorneys, Carla Castello, Donald Bluedorn and Lisa Bruderly, accepted the honor on behalf of the firm. “The firm views diversity as a business imperative that is critical for maintaining a positive and inclusive workplace culture. We are honored to be recognized by the ALLY Initiative,” said Carla Castello, Chair of the firm’s Women’s Initiative.
ALLY stands for Attorneys, Learning as allies, Living as allies, and Yielding results. The ACBA Ally initiative was created “to engage attorneys, their law firms, corporate legal departments, courts and other legal organizations to commit to increase inclusivity, create equitable workplaces, empower historically marginalized and underrepresented members of the bar and reflect the community we serve, through active participation in various key programs and projects targeted to achieve these objectives.”
Over the past year, Babst Calland successfully completed 10 goals across four different categories to earn this ALLY certification and further promote gender equity and diversity both at the Firm and in the community. These accomplishments included, but were not limited to, the following:
The ALLY certification memorializes Babst Calland’s commitment to diversity, equality and inclusion in the workplace and legal profession.
Babst Calland has been ranked in the 2023 U.S. News & World Report and Best Lawyers® “Best Law Firms” list nationally in seven practice areas and regionally in 29 practice areas:
Firms included in the 2023 “Best Law Firms” list are recognized for professional excellence with persistently impressive ratings from clients and peers. Achieving a tiered ranking signals a unique combination of quality law practice and breadth of legal expertise.
Ranked firms, presented in tiers, are listed on a national and/or metropolitan scale. Receiving a tier designation reflects the high level of respect a firm has earned among other leading lawyers and clients in the same communities and the same practice areas for their abilities, their professionalism and their integrity.
The 2023 Edition of “Best Law Firms” includes rankings in 75 national practice areas and 127 metropolitan-based practice areas. One “Law Firm of the Year” is named in each of the nationally ranked practice areas.
Click here to view the full ranking on U.S. News U.S. News & World Report-Best Lawyers® “Best Law Firms” list.
Babst Calland attorneys celebrated the opening of the Moonshot Museum and gathered for a special tour of the new Museum housed inside Astrobotic’s headquarters facility, with Justine Kasznica, the firm’s Emerging Tech practice chair and founding board member of the Museum. Babst Calland is a founding partner of the Museum.
To learn more about the Moonshot Museum, visit https://moonshotmuseum.org/.
Michael T. Korns recently joined Babst Calland as senior counsel in the Public Sector and Energy and Natural Resources groups. Mr. Korns has wide experience with issues related to land use and advises both public sector bodies and private developers on issues related to municipal permitting, planning, subdivision and land use, and zoning. He has significant experience litigating zoning and land use cases and has successfully argued zoning and land use matters in the Court of Common Pleas and the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court. He regularly appears in front of zoning hearing boards, planning commissions, and governing boards on behalf of private developers and impacted property owners.
Mr. Korns has served as a solicitor for municipalities, school districts, zoning hearing boards, and municipal authorities; he comes to Babst Calland as the current solicitor for multiple public bodies. Mr. Korns counsels and represents the Firm’s municipal clients on general municipal issues, including tax assessment appeals, municipal taxation, public bidding, Sunshine Act, the Right-to-Know Law, the State Ethics Act, general land use and zoning matters, and code enforcement. He also advises the Firm’s energy clients on issues related to land use, permitting, zoning, and code compliance.
Prior to joining Babst Calland, Mr. Korns was senior counsel with Maiello, Brungo and Maiello, LLP. He is a 2006 graduate of Harvard Law School.
Devlin E. Carey recently joined Babst Calland as an associate in the Litigation Group. Mr. Carey practices in a variety of litigation practice areas, including commercial, energy and natural resources, environmental and employment and labor.
Prior to joining Babst Calland, Mr. Carey was an associate with Shearman & Sterling in New York City. He is a 2021 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School.
Attorney Justine Kasznica who is also a Founding Board Member of the Moonshot Museum, led its grand opening on October 15. Babst Calland is honored to support and partner with the museum as Pennsylvania’s first space museum and first museum in the world focused on career readiness for the 21st century space industry.
Babst Calland announced that Attorney Sloane Wildman has joined the firm’s Washington, D.C. office as a shareholder and member of its Environmental practice group.
Sloane Wildman’s practice involves CERCLA and RCRA site remediation and counseling clients in all aspects of environmental law and regulation, including RCRA, CERCLA/EPCRA release reporting, Safe Drinking Water Act, TSCA, FIFRA, green marketing, the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act. She represents clients in administrative, civil judicial and criminal enforcement cases. Her wide-ranging RCRA experience includes counseling, defense of enforcement actions and permitting and encompasses all aspects of federal and state hazardous waste regulation, including solid and hazardous waste identification, generation, transportation, treatment, storage, disposal, closure and corrective action matters.
Ms. Wildman earned her J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law and received her undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College.
Ms. Wildman is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia and California (inactive) and before the U.S. District Courts for the Eastern and Southern Districts of California. She is a member of the District of Columbia Bar Association’s Environment, Energy and Natural Resources Section and the American Bar Association’s Natural Resources, Energy and Natural Resources Section.
Justine Kasznica will be a panelist on the Small Business Presentation panel to speak from her role as a lawyer who helps space and other technology businesses/individuals designed soon-to-be proprietary information operate in the tech transfer space, especially individuals and companies in the early stages of idea development moving out of their lab and into the commercial realm.
In his testimony on September 20, 2022 at the Pennsylvania House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee public hearing regarding “Wellhead to Stovetop – Conveying Energy in PA,” Babst Calland Attorney Keith Coyle, chair of the Marcellus Shale Coalition’s Pipeline Safety Workgroup, discussed the role and contribution of natural gas in the energy sector, and the importance of pipelines as a means of transporting natural gas from the wellhead to consumers. He urged the Committee to recognize the importance of the natural gas industry and offered thoughts on the policies that should be considered in securing Pennsylvania’s energy future.
He explained, “Policies that impose unnecessary barriers on natural gas production or that prohibit the installation of pipeline infrastructure will create an energy system that is far less secure, particularly in the short term. The basic needs of everyday Americans cannot be met if one-third of the country’s primary energy production is unavailable or cannot be safely and reliably delivered to consumers. Nor can the needs of the Commonwealth’s citizens be met without the natural gas that heats its homes and runs its power plants. As the recent developments in Europe show, policies that fail to account for the energy needs of a modern society are not progressive and often cause the greatest harm to those who are the most vulnerable.”
To view the live stream video of the House Environmental Resources & Energy Committee’s public hearing regarding “Wellhead to Stovetop – Conveying Energy in PA, click here.
Only automobile dealerships can sell you a car in many states. Electric-vehicle startup Rivian wants that to end, and it’s Jim Chen’s job to make that happen. It won’t be easy.
To view this article in the Wall Street Journal online edition, click here.
Sean McGovern was selected to Leadership Pittsburgh 2022-2023 Cohort. Leadership Pittsburgh Inc. is the local independent nonprofit that is best known for serving as the region’s premier
community leadership, identification, connection and development organization.
It’s the 39th cohort to take part in the flagship, highly-selective program, which includes 10 months of curriculum focused around examining the region’s most pressing issues. The program will kick off in mid-September with a reception at the Duquesne Club, followed by an opening retreat later in the month. Then, the class will convene monthly for daylong sessions. The program will wrap up in June 2023.
“The participants selected for LP XXXIX represent a diverse cross-section of our community at significant levels of influence,” Jenn Beer, CEO of Leadership Pittsburgh, said in a release. “We are honored that leaders of this caliber believe that civic leadership engagement in our community matters. The commitment to participating in Leadership Pittsburgh will strengthen bonds and networks between the participants, their organizations and the region.”
In total, 58 individuals were named to the cohort.
Attorneys Susanna Bagdasarova and Joseph A. Pope recently joined Babst Calland.
Susanna Bagdasarova joins the Corporate and Commercial and Emerging Technologies groups as an associate. She represents business clients in connection with a broad range of general corporate and commercial law matters, including entity formation, corporate structuring, corporate governance, commercial contracts, and mergers and acquisitions, with a focus on the technology sector. Prior to joining Babst Calland, Ms. Bagdasarova was an associate with Jones Day. She graduated summa cum laude from The Pennsylvania State University, The Dickinson School of Law in 2015.
Joseph Pope joins the Corporate and Commercial Group as senior counsel. Mr. Pope’s practice focuses on corporate and transactional matters, including corporate and commercial finance transactions, with a particular focus on transactions involving commercial real estate. Prior to joining Babst Calland, he was a senior attorney with Hergenroeder Rega Ewing & Kennedy. Mr. Pope graduated cum laude from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law in 2008.
Emily A. Davis recently joined Babst Calland as an associate in the Litigation and Energy and Natural Resources groups. Ms. Davis has experience in federal and state courts and arbitrations, litigating complex matters for oil and gas producers and midstream companies. Her practice includes representing clients in litigation concerning a variety of matters including class actions, royalty disputes, title disputes, claims concerning underground storage and pipeline operations, and trespass claims.
Prior to joining Babst Calland, Ms. Davis was an associate at Reed Smith LLP. She is a 2017 graduate of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law.
Attorney Alex Farone who is also the Co-Chair of the Allegheny County Bar Association’s Communications Committee of the Young Lawyer’s Division and the Editor and Chief of its “Point of Law” Newsletter led the newsletter to receive a 2022 American Bar Association Award of Achievement. This award is presented to projects submitted by local, state and national ABA YLD Affiliates for well-planned, and executed, programs that contribute significantly to the public and the betterment of the legal profession. Recognition is determined by a jury of their peers.
View the “Point of Law” Newsletter, here.
View the Spring 2022 issue, here.