Bruce S. Katcher

Biography:

Bruce S. Katcher is one of the founding partners of Manko, Gold, Katcher & Fox LLP. He is admitted to the New Jersey and Pennsylvania bars and is the partner in charge of the firm's New Jersey office. His practice includes contaminated site assessment, remediation and development; renewable energy and energy efficiency; public funding of environmental improvements and energy projects; Superfund; coastal and waterfront development; solid and hazardous waste, underground storage tank, air and water pollution control regulatory compliance counseling; wetlands and water supply issues; and transactional counseling. Bruce has represented industrial, real estate, and municipal clients in the following types of matters:

• working with commercial and residential real estate clients in developing and implementing creative brownfields reuse strategies under state voluntary cleanup programs in New Jersey and Pennsylvania and the federal land revitalization initiative and helping clients secure state and federal financial assistance for such projects;
• developing cleanup compliance strategies for industrial clients at operating facilities and in connection with plant closures and at off-site waste sites to address historic contamination under state and federal cleanup authorities, including the New Jersey Spill Compensation and Control Act ("Spill Act") and Industrial Site Recovery Act ("ISRA"), Pennsylvania Land Recycling and Environmental Remediation Standards Act ("Act 2"), and federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act ("RCRA") corrective action, Toxic Substances Control Act ("TSCA") PCB Mega Rule, and Superfund cleanup requirements;
• advising New Jersey clients regarding the use of licensed site remediation professionals ("LSRPs") to oversee the cleanup of contaminated sites under New Jersey's Site Remediation Reform Act;
• counseling clients concerning evolving legal requirements regarding renewable energy, energy conservation, green building and other sustainability initiatives, including federal and state financing opportunities;
• obtaining regulatory approvals for real estate development and industrial projects under applicable New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and federal environmental programs, including coastal and waterfront development permits, wetlands permits, National Pollution Discharge Elimination System ("NPDES") permits, and water supply permits;
• assisting clients to cost-effectively resolve natural resource damages claims under New Jersey’s natural resource damage initiative for groundwater, wetlands, and other affected resources utilizing both monetary and resource-to-resource settlements at state Spill Act sites and state-lead Superfund sites;
• advising buyers, sellers, and financial institutions concerning environmental issues affecting the purchase, sale, and financing of real estate or businesses and negotiating and documenting the parties’ understandings in purchase agreements, loan documents, and escrow and indemnity agreements;
• negotiating and documenting lease terms for lessors and lessees to allocate responsibility for environmental conditions arising prior to and during the leasehold;
• helping clients obtain and negotiate the terms of environmental insurance policies including pollution legal liability and cost-cap insurance;
• counseling parties to New Jersey transactions that trigger the requirements of ISRA, developing creative strategies to facilitate closing and compliance with ISRA or obtaining letters of non-applicability where appropriate, and assisting in the implementation of cleanups where necessary;
• advising waste management industry clients concerning landfill and transfer station siting, permitting, operations compliance, landfill closure and redevelopment opportunities, and recycling activities;
• negotiating consent orders and consent decrees to resolve enforcement cases and address regulatory compliance and site remediation issues under federal and state law; and
• counseling clients on regulatory compliance, including environmental auditing and compliance management system development, addressing spill reporting requirements and recordkeeping obligations, and responding to agency information requests.

 

Bruce has lectured and written extensively on various environmental law subjects in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Article topics include the New Jersey Site Remediation Reform Act, the New Jersey natural resource damages program, and regulatory reform programs in New Jersey and at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. He has also served as an adjunct Lecturer-in-Law at Temple University Law School and authored the chapter on solid waste management in the Pennsylvania Bar Institute's treatise, Pennsylvania Environmental Law and Practice. He has been listed in the Best Lawyers® in America since 1995. He is also listed in Chambers USA - America’s Leading Lawyers for Business, and Pennsylvania’s and New Jersey’s Super Lawyers since 2005 and 2006, respectively.

Following the election of Chris Christie as Governor of New Jersey in November 2009, Bruce was appointed to serve on the Environment Subcommittee of the Governor-Elect's Transition Team. Bruce is a member of the Board of Directors and Executive Committee of the PENJERDEL Council, and Chairman of the Council’s Environmental Committee. He chairs the Environment Committee of the Chamber of Commerce Southern New Jersey and is a past member of the Executive Committee and the Board of the Chamber. He is a member of the organizing committee of the Greater Philadelphia Green Business Program and is a former member of the Voorhees Township, New Jersey, Environmental Commission, and the Pennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board Rules Committee.

Before founding Manko, Gold, Katcher and Fox LLP, Bruce was a partner in the Environmental Law Department of Wolf Block. Between college and law school, he worked for the Office of International Affairs of the U.S. Treasury Department for two years.

Education:

• University of Pennsylvania Law School, J.D., cum laude, 1976
• University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School, B.S. (economics), magna cum laude, Beta Gamma Sigma honor society, 1971

Memberships:

• Bar Admissions in New Jersey, Pennsylvania
• New Jersey State Bar Association, Environmental Law Section
• Pennsylvania Bar Association, Environmental, Mineral, and Natural Resources Section
• Builders League of South Jersey, Action Committee
• New Jersey Builders Association, Environment Committee
• New Jersey Business and Industry Association, Environmental Network
• National Brownfields Association, New Jersey Chapter
• New Jersey Licensed Site Remediation Professionals Association, Associate Member