Professional Experience:

Mr. McGovern focuses his practice in the areas of environmental counseling and litigation. His specialized knowledge and experience in environmental counseling and litigation includes:

(a) the redevelopment and reuse of contaminated, abandoned and underutilized properties, including, negotiating, drafting and implementing redevelopment agreements under the New Jersey Brownfields Law and prospective purchaser agreements under the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Brownfields Initiative; devising and applying innovative cleanup strategies (risk-based closures, institutional controls, and engineering controls) for both soil and groundwater contamination; evaluating the applicability and availability of federal and state grants and loans for purposes of funding environmental assessments and remediation; and determining the availability and use of tax abatements under the New Jersey Brownfields Law and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Brownfields Initiative

(b) the environmental aspects of complex corporate, real estate and other business transactions, including, negotiating and drafting environmental provisions for all forms of transactional documents; organizing and conducting environmental due diligence; transferring federal and state environmental permits, licenses and other authorizations; and evaluating the applicability of and complying with the requirements of the New Jersey Industrial Site Recovery Act

(c) complex environmental litigation, including, defending federal, state and local governmental enforcement activities under all Federal and New Jersey environmental statutes and regulations; prosecuting and defending private and governmental cleanup cost recovery actions (Federal Superfund, Spill Act); and prosecuting and defending toxic torts and third-party appeals of federal and state environmental permits

(d) permitting requirements under federal and New Jersey environmental laws and regulations for all forms of business activities, including, real estate development (CAFRA, Freshwater Wetlands, Stream Encroachment, Waterfront Development, DRBC review); the construction and operation of new air emissions sources (PSD, NSR, Subchapter 8); solid and hazardous waste management activities (treatment storage and disposal facility permits, transporter/hauler registration, waste generator notification)

(e) federal and state community right-to-know compliance activities (emergency response notifications, Tier I and II reporting and Form R submissions, worker training)

Before joining Parker McCay, Mr. McGovern was a member of the law firms Manko Gold Katcher & Fox (2000-2003, partner), Blank Rome (1990-2000, admitted to partnership in 1997), and Porzio Bromberg & Newman (1987-1990, associate). Prior to practicing law, Mr. McGovern worked as an environmental consultant for approximately seven years, first with John G. Reutter Associates in Camden, and later with JCA Associates, Inc. in Moorestown. Mr. McGovern has published numerous articles on the topic of environmental law and regulation. He is a certified lecturer for the American Society of Testing and Materials for the Phase I and II Environmental Site Assessment standards.

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Mr. McGovern was born in Camden, New Jersey and currently resides in Moorestown, New Jersey with his wife and two children. He has published two environmental novels. The first, The Kyoto Protocol, is a character-driven suspense novel that takes place in the Philadelphia area and looks at global warming and the emerging "carbon market". The sequel, The Lazarus Witness, is set in the city of Camden and takes on the difficult issue of environmental justice.

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