Sean McGovern Elected to the Fellows of the American Bar Foundation
Babst Calland is pleased to announce that Sean M. McGovern has been elected a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation (ABF). Membership is limited to just one percent of lawyers licensed to practice in each jurisdiction. Members are nominated by their peers and selected by the ABF Board.
The ABF Fellows is a global honorary society that recognizes attorneys, judges, law faculty and legal scholars whose public and private careers have demonstrated outstanding dedication to the highest principles of the legal profession and the welfare of their communities. ABF Fellows hail from nearly 40 countries and hold a wide variety of influential roles.
Sean McGovern is a shareholder in the Environmental practice and co-chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources practice of Babst Calland. Mr. McGovern’s practice involves counseling clients on a variety of federal, state, and local regulatory and compliance issues related to mining, renewable, oil and natural gas well development, production, midstream, storage, plugging and restoration in the Appalachian Basin. He counsels these clients on a wide range of environmental regulatory and enforcement matters, including water withdrawal, erosion and sediment controls, various permitting requirements, seismic and acoustic assessments, the transportation and disposal of wastes generated by industry, in addition to other issues related to pooling, unitization, and spacing and setback requirements under Pennsylvania’s Conservation Law. Mr. McGovern regularly handles storage tank issues, stray gas investigations, as well as site reclamation and remediation matters. He also has experience with environmental transactions, including due diligence activities; environmental justice considerations and requirements; and river basin commissions. In addition, Mr. McGovern has counseled clients pertaining to investigations by the Pennsylvania Office of the Attorney General and the U.S. Department of Justice.
Mr. McGovern was recognized in The Best Lawyers in The Best Lawyers in America© in the Environmental Law Section for 2025 by BL Rankings. He is a 2022-23 alumnus of Leadership Pittsburgh XXXIX alumnus. In 2012, Mr. McGovern was selected by The Legal Intelligencer as one of only 35 “Lawyers on the Fast Track” in Pennsylvania. This recognition is given to attorneys under the age of 40 who have demonstrated excellence in four categories: development of the law, advocacy and community contributions, service to the bar and peer/public recognition. He was also selected to the 2012-2013 and 2015-2016 Pennsylvania Rising Stars lists (Thomson Reuters).
Mr. McGovern graduated from the University of North Carolina School of Law at Chapel Hill in 2006.
About the ABF Fellows
Notable Fellows include Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader-Ginsberg, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Sonia Sotomayor, Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts, Former United States Secretary of State Hilary Rodham Clinton.
The ABF Fellows serve as stewards of the American Bar Foundation, an independent, nonprofit research organization that conducts short- and long-term socio-legal research projects. The ABF’s mission is to serve the legal profession, the public, and the academy through empirical research, publications, and programs that advance justice and the understanding of law. The ABF’s research falls under one of three categories: learning and practicing law; protecting rights and accessing justice; and making and implementing law. The Foundation is committed to broad dissemination of research findings to the organized bar, scholars, and the general public.