Profile
Virginia chaired the firm’s environmental and energy practice from 2000 to 2016 and was a member of the firm’s management committee from 2014 to 2015 and 2004 to 2005.
She is experienced in advising clients on state and federal regulatory compliance issues, particularly in the areas of air and water pollution control and solid and hazardous waste management. Virginia has experience in the requirements of the federal Clean Air Act, for example, major and minor source permitting strategies, negotiation of special conditions establishing emission caps, Title V applicability and operational flexibility, and new source review issues. She advises owners and operators of solid waste management facilities, many of which include landfill gas-to-energy plants, on a variety of air quality and solid waste compliance matters, particularly in the context of facility siting and expansions.
Virginia has counseled clients involved in electric power generation and development projects on environmental impact reviews under Article X of the Public Service Law, air permit/compliance matters, carbon dioxide allowances and Acid Rain program applicability, and the burning of alternative fuels. She has represented wind energy facility owners in obtaining special permits and variances needed for the siting of wind energy conversion system facilities.
Virginia has managed significant RCRA corrective action and state and federal Superfund matters, including the negotiation of RCRA Corrective Measures Orders, remedial investigation/remedial design Consent Orders, and access easements. She has also advised clients extensively on real estate transactions involving contaminated properties, including relative to the opportunities under New York's Brownfield Cleanup Program. Virginia regularly counsels both municipal clients and developers on compliance with environmental impact reviews under the State Environmental Quality Review Act and the National Environmental Policy Act.
Virginia has arranged programs and spoken on a variety of environmental law topics, for example: Program Co-Chair, State Bar Leaders Summit on Climate Change, June 17, 2016, Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School; Panel Member, Gaming Casinos: Learn from the Past to Prepare for the Future, New York State Bar Association’s Annual Meeting, January 30, 2015; Program Co-Chair and Panel Moderator, Continuing Legal Education Program for Annual Meeting of the New York State Bar Association’s Environmental Law Section, January 30, 2015; Program Co-Chair for the Fall 2014 meeting of NYSBA’s Environmental and Municipal Law Sections regarding, “Update on Environmental Impact Review Under the State Environmental Quality Review Act and New York’s Marcellus Shale Gas Regulatory Program;” Presenter, Legal Regulatory Update, Central New York Chapter Air & Waste Management Association, December 16, 2014; Panel Member, Legal Perspective: Environmental Auditing, O’Brien & Gere and Bond, Schoeneck & King Seminar, Changes in the Air – An Update on Emerging Air Quality Regulations on May 21, 2013.
