Janet L. McQuaid - Lawyer in Pittsburgh, PA

Areas of Emphasis

Janet McQuaid is of counsel in the Firms Environmental and Energy and Natural Resources groups. She has experience in many environmental programs, particularly water, waste, remediation, and chemical regulation.

Ms. McQuaid has represented clients in many industries, including oil and gas exploration and production, natural gas transmission, refining, chemicals, electronics, and real estate development. She has defended industry and commercial clients in these and other industries against government enforcement actions before various federal and state environmental regulatory authorities, hearing boards, and courts. Ms. McQuaid helps clients negotiate agreed orders or consent decrees, handles administrative hearings, and participates in litigation in state and federal courts if litigation is necessary to protect the clients interests.

Ms. McQuaid has assisted clients in preparing comments on proposed environmental rules and challenged unfavorable regulations in court, including briefing and argument before the Fifth, Seventh, and Ninth Circuit Courts of Appeal on behalf of industry trade associations. She is also highly experienced in the environmental aspects of mergers and acquisitions, having conducted environmental due diligence and drafted the environmental terms for hundreds of transactions involving industrial facilities and commercial properties.

Background

After graduating from the University of Pittsburgh, Ms. McQuaid worked for eleven years as a chemical engineer for Exxon, where she worked in the refining, oil and gas exploration and production, and supply logistics departments of the company. Following law school at the University of Texas, Ms. McQuaid practiced law for twenty years in Austin and Houston, Texas, including three years as senior environmental counsel with El Paso Corporation (now part of Kinder Morgan). She came home to Pittsburgh, Pa. in 2011.

Memberships and Affiliations

Ms. McQuaid is admitted to practice law in Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Colorado and Texas, and is a member of their bar associations. She is also admitted to practice before various United States District Courts in Texas, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio, and the United States Courts of Appeals for the Fifth, Seventh, and Ninth Circuits, and is a member of several federal bar associations. Locally, she is a member of the Washington and Allegheny County bar associations. Ms. McQuaid is a member of the Order of the Coif and alumni association of the Texas Law Review, of which she was Chief Manuscript Editor during law school. She is also Secretary of the Board of Directors of the United Way of Washington County for its 2018-2019 fiscal year.

Ms. McQuaid has been recognized over the years as a highly skilled environmental lawyer and has been selected to the 2007-2009 and 2017 Denver Super Lawyers lists (Thomson Reuters) for environmental law and listed in The Best Lawyers in America? by BL Rankings in the Environmental Section since 2007.