Kerry L. McGrath

Kerry has 15 years of wide-ranging experience handling novel and complex energy, environmental, and administrative law issues. She regularly assists applicants in obtaining and defending federal permits and navigating environmental reviews for complicated energy and development projects. Clients leverage Kerry’s thorough legal analysis to build comprehensive regulatory and compliance strategies tailored to their business objectives.

Kerry is a key member of our energy transition team and serves as project counsel for a number of carbon capture and sequestration, new wind and solar generation, and battery storage projects. She has extensive experience not only advising clients on federal permitting and compliance for linear infrastructure, including oil and gas pipelines and electric transmission lines, but also with federal litigation, including litigation related to administrative rulemakings and defense of major federal environmental permits. Kerry’s clients derive from a variety of industry sectors, including utilities, mining, oil and gas, renewables, agriculture, consumer products, housing and development, and related trade associations and industry coalitions.

• Lead counsel defending CCS project proponent’s EPA UIC Class VI permit in EPA Environmental Appeals Board proceeding.
• Project counsel for electric transmission line project involving NEPA review, tribal consultation, historic preservation issues, and species consultation.
• Represents utility in federal district court litigation defending NEPA reviews for new natural gas plant projects.
• Advise offshore wind project proponent on CWA and Rivers and Harbors Act permitting and related requirements, including for offshore and onshore transmission line components.
• Lead counsel on federal Clean Water Act 404 permitting matter involving client’s new mines and mine extension projects in Florida, involving key NEPA, protected species, and wetlands issues, and defense of permit in federal court.
• Analyzes complex legal issues for an energy company, advising the client on strategic approaches to manage the EIS and permitting process. Representation involves coordinating with various agencies with responsibilities under NEPA, the National Historic Preservation Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the Clean Water Act.
• Obtained a critical federal Clean Water Act NPDES discharge permit for facility on tribal land and successfully defended permit before the U.S. EPA Environmental Appeals Board. The permit and related litigation involves essentially every major water issue EPA has addressed in the past few years, including “waters of the United States” jurisdictional determination, application of CWA section 316(b) requirements for cooling water intake structures, steam electric effluent limitation guidelines, hydrologic connection/Coal Combustion Residual (CCR) issues, water quality standards for features on tribal lands, and permit issues related to sovereign immunity.
• Represents developers, mining companies, agriculture interests, utilities and pipeline companies on jurisdictional determinations, use of nationwide permits and other general permits, expedited permitting procedures and mitigation requirements under Section 404 of the CWA.
• Provides long-term daily representation of an association of electric utilities on US water regulation developments, including development of many extensive technical and legal comments on US EPA regulatory proposals.
• Counsels utilities on obtaining/renewing and complying with state and federal NPDES permits, particularly for facilities with cooling water intake structures subject to the EPA Section 316(b) Rule’s requirements.
• Advises clients on avian protection guidelines and related requirements and incidental take issues under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act.
• Counsels clients on the ESA Section 7 consultation process for projects requiring federal permits and the ESA Section 10 incidental take permit process for energy and development projects and operations.
• Advises electric utilities and other energy companies on permitting electric transmission and other structures across federal lands administered by the National Park Service and the US Forest Service.
• Advises interstate natural gas pipelines on environmental permitting and siting matters; regulatory compliance and litigation under the CWA, ESA, NEPA and other federal environmental laws; and the interplay between EPA, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) regulations.

• Recommended for Environment: Litigation (2021-2024) and Environment: Regulatory (2021-2024), Legal 500 United States

• Selected as a member of the Lawdragon Top 500 Environmental and Energy Lawyers (2021) and Lawdragon Green 500: Leaders in Environmental Law (2023, 2024)

• Named to “40 & Under Hot List” by Benchmark Litigation, 2018–2024
• Recognized as 2021 Environmental Group of the Year, Law360, January 2022

• Named a Law360 Environmental Rising Star, 2021

• 2021 and 2017 Chambers USA Environment Law Firm of the Year

• Member, Section of Environment, Energy and Resources, American Bar Association
• Member, Women’s Energy Network
• Chair, Environmental Justice & Stakeholder Engagement Committee, The CCUS Commercialization Acceleration Consortium by Southern States Energy Board & University of Houston’s Center for Carbon Management in Energy