Bar & Court Admissions

  • Pennsylvania
  • New Jersey
  • U.S. District Court for Eastern District of Pennsylvania
  • U.S. District Court for District of New Jersey

Education

University of Pennsylvania School of Law, J.D., 1996

  • Special Projects Editor, University of Pennsylvania Law Review

John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Masters in Public Policy (Environmental and Natural Resource Policy), 1993

  • Outstanding Policy Analysis Exercise Award for co-authored study of unit-based pricing for solid waste services in Massachusetts

Brown University, A.B. (Public Policy and American Institutions), 1989

  • Magna Cum Laude
  • Phi Beta Kappa

International Council of Shopping Centers

  • Environmental Subcommittee, 2014-present 

Urban Land Institute

  • Associate Member

Beth David Reform Congregation

  • Co-Chair, Membership Committee, 2015-present
  • Solicitor, 2009-2013
  • Member, Board of Trustees, 2008-2013

Drexel University Thomas R. Kline School of Law

  • Adjunct Lecturer, 2008-2011

Conservancy of Montgomery County

  • Member, Board of Directors, 1999-2010

Gershman Y Branch, Jewish Community Centers of Greater Philadelphia

  • Member, Board of Directors, 2002-2008

Riverbend Environmental Education Center

  • Secretary, 2000-2002
  • Member, Board of Trustees, 1999-2002
Profile
Professional Highlights
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Rodd has concentrated on brownfield transactions and compliance counseling across a variety of regulatory programs since joining the firm in 1997. He has extensive experience structuring environmental due diligence for real estate and business transactions, negotiating environmental provisions in transactional documents, and advising developers on satisfying state and federal cleanup programs and property transfer laws consistent with business objectives. For brownfield projects Rodd has negotiated environmental insurance policies and agency liability protection agreements, and counseled clients on public involvement strategies.

In the regulatory compliance arena, Rodd has advised and provided training to companies on complex regulatory programs such as hazardous waste management, release and right-to-know reporting, storage tank operations and corrective action, spill prevention and countermeasures, polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) use and cleanups, asbestos workplace standards, and stormwater permitting.  He has provided legal oversight for regulatory compliance audits of multi-facility clients, both confidentially and involving disclosure to and negotiation of reduced penalties with federal and state agencies under voluntary disclosure policies. Rodd has also represented clients to resolve agency enforcement actions alleging violations of regulatory requirements.

Outside the office, Rodd enjoys taking road trips with his wife, following the extracurricular exploits of their teenage son and tween daughter, and riding the highs and lows of Philadelphia’s professional sports teams. Whenever possible, he also continues his quest for a respectable golf handicap. 

Rodd has represented clients in matters such as the following:

  • Rodd has counseled clients in the chemical, energy, transportation, communications, real estate development, and other sectors, and collaborated with environmental consultants and Licensed Site Remediation Professionals, to manage environmental due diligence efforts, negotiate environmental provisions in transactional agreements, and satisfy site remediation requirements for sites in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and other locations, including pursuant to state brownfield cleanup programs and real property transfer laws such as the New Jersey Industrial Site Recovery Act.
  • He counsels a national metals recycling company on various federal and state environmental regulatory requirements, with a particular focus on hazardous waste management.  Rodd’s work for this client has included providing legal oversight for internal compliance audits, preparing responses to agency information requests, and negotiating the resolution of enforcement actions.
  • For over a decade, he advised a real estate development client on the remediation and redevelopment of a former industrial site in a rapidly gentrifying Philadelphia neighborhood.  Rodd worked closely with the development team and environmental consultant to integrate business objectives and legal requirements under both the Pennsylvania Land Recycling (Act 2) voluntary cleanup program and the federal Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) regulations for polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) remediations.  As part of this project, Rodd helped to structure and participated in several public engagement meetings with interested stakeholders.
  • Rodd coordinated environmental due diligence efforts and negotiated the environmental provisions of transactional documents in a client’s acquisition and redevelopment of a mothballed Pennsylvania manufacturing facility into a modern industrial park.  This effort included working with the former owners and Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection to develop institutional controls and soil management requirements allowing the client flexibility to perform excavation and on-site soil reuse activities as part of extensive renovations to the facility.  
  • He has drafted and negotiated consent orders and agreements with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection to provide cleanup liability protection in the context of remediating and redeveloping several Pennsylvania brownfield sites.  These documents have included both Buyer-Seller Agreements and Special Industrial Area Agreements, and Rodd has represented both property buyers and sellers in these matters.
  • For a healthcare client, Rodd provided legal oversight in environmental compliance audits of a hospital and multiple outpatient facilities.  Activities included advising the client on retaining an outside auditing firm, evaluating audit findings, and providing legal advice on regulatory compliance issues.
  • He assisted a commercial client in its acquisition of a Delaware brownfield property with groundwater contamination and located adjacent to a Superfund site.  For this matter, Rodd coordinated environmental due diligence activities and met with the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) to structure a process under which the client received cleanup liability protection in redeveloping the property as a regional distribution center while the seller remediated the property.  To implement this strategy, Rodd negotiated contract provisions and an environmental escrow agreement providing for the seller’s remediation pursuant to a DNREC consent decree,a Brownfield Development Agreement between the client and DNREC, and an environmental insurance policy.

Rodd has written articles on a variety of environmental subjects for publications including the Legal Intelligencer, Association of Corporate Counsel’s Green-House Counsel, and the Mid Atlantic Real Estate Journal.  Some topics have included voluntary cleanup programs, green leasing, hazardous waste management, lender liability, and audit policy disclosures.  For several years he co-authored the Pennsylvania chapter in Brownfields Law and Practice:  The Cleanup and Redevelopment of Contaminated Land, published by LexisNexis.  Rodd also authored the updated chapter on legal considerations in the ninth edition of Environmental Health and Safety Audits published by Government Institutes.

Rodd has presented to industry audiences and for continuing legal education programs on topics such as brownfield redevelopment, environmental permitting in real estate projects, environmental issues for the construction industry and commercial and industrial real estate brokers, green leasing, environmental auditing, lender environmental liability protections, hazardous and residual waste management, and storage tank regulatory requirements and litigation.  He served as course planner and presenter for “Due Diligence in Real Estate and Business Transactions,” a CLE course presented by the Pennsylvania Bar Institute in Spring 2013.

At the firm, Rodd has been extensively involved in the website and technology committees, and been an active member of the hiring committee.

Before joining the firm, Rodd served as a law clerk for the Honorable William T. Moore, Jr., U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia. Prior to his legal career, Rodd was an analyst for the environment and health systems group of American Management Systems, Inc., in Arlington, Virginia, performing program analysis and support for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Honors & Awards

  • The Best Lawyers® in America listing (environmental law), since 2013.  The Best Lawyers list is issued by Woodward/White, Inc. Click here to view the selection methodology.
  • Pennsylvania Super Lawyers listing (environmental law), since 2012; Pennsylvania Super Lawyers/Law & Politics magazine listing ("Pennsylvania Rising Star”), 2006. The Super Lawyers list is issued by Thomson Reuters.  Click here to view the selection methodology.
  • No aspect of this advertisement has been approved by the Supreme Court of New Jersey or any other jurisdiction.

Press Releases

Seminars & Speaking Engagements

"EPA Rule on Solid and Hazardous Waste: Enforcement and Compliance With 83 Fed. Reg. 24664 - Navigating the Regulatory Framework for Hazardous Waste Recycling", a Strafford Publications webinar, May 10, 2022

“Generator Requirements and the Hazardous Waste Generator Improvements Rule” presented at the Second Annual RCRA Seminar organized by SWEP of Greater Philadelphia, October 15, 2020

“Pennsylvania Waste Update - Management of Fill Policy and Residual Waste Compliance Pointers” presented at the 2019 Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry’s 2019 Annual Environmental Compliance Conference in King of Prussia, October 29, 2019

“The New Regulations for Underground and Aboveground Storage Tanks:  Strategies to Manage  Your Residual Waste” presented at the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry’s 2018 Annual Environmental Compliance Conference in Harrisburg (Sept. 26), Pittsburgh (Oct. 17), and King of Prussia (Oct. 30)

“Complying with Pennsylvania’s Residual Waste Law and the Residual Waste Reports (PA 26R and 25R) – Update on Hazardous Waste Generators” presented at the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry’s 2017 Annual Environmental Conference in Pittsburgh/Mars (Oct. 5), Harrisburg (Oct. 12), and King of Prussia (Oct. 26)

“Emerging Issues in Environmental Law: Impacting Real Estate Acquisition, Development and Ownership” presented at the Association of Corporate Counsel Greater Philadelphia - Ethics, Real Estate, Contracts & Commercial Law CLE Institute, King of Prussia, PA, August 8, 2017

"2016 Annual Environmental Conference” presented by the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry, May 2, 2016

"Managing Environmental Risks to Get the Deal Done” presented by the 2016 Temple Real Estate Institute, April 14 and May 3, 2016 

"Due Diligence in Real Estate and Business Transactions - Property and Environmental Considerations," presented at the Pennsylvania Bar Institute in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, PA, March 7 and April 22, 2013

"Greening Your Real Estate Deals:  Opportunities and Risks in Sustainable Development," presented at the Temple University Real Estate Institute in Philadelphia, PA, May 5, 2012

"Environmental Impacts on Real Estate: New Developments and Emerging Trends," presented at the Pennsylvania Bar Institute's (PBI) 12th Annual Real Estate Institute in Philadelphia, PA, December 4, 2008

"Current Environmental Issues for Commerical and Industrial Real Estate Professionals," presented at the Temple University Real Estate Institute in Philadelphia, PA, April 22, 2008