Scott R. Thistle

Scott has represented a diverse group of clients in environmental matters over the past 24 years. His clients have included manufacturers, industrial and commercial entities, remediation contractors, real estate developers, lenders, venture capital firms, economic development agencies, municipalities and individuals. He is a Director and a member of the Business, Environmental Law, Insurance Coverage Litigation and Litigation Groups.

Experience

Scott previously worked as assistant counsel at the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Resources from 1986 to 1992. While working at the Department, he drafted and worked with the General Assembly legislative staff to pass Pennsylvania's Plumbing System Lead Ban and Notification Act. He also successfully argued before the Commonwealth Court, urging the court to adopt DER's interpretation of the 1939 Water Rights Act. The outcome in DER's favor had major statewide implications for the agency's permitting authority under the Act.

He also rewrote the DER's wetlands protection regulations.

Scott was a law clerk to Justice John J. McNeilly in the Supreme Court of Delaware in 1985-1986.

Today, he focuses his practice on environmental compliance, permitting and regulatory issues; environmental representation in business and real estate transactions; environmental litigation; negotiating with state and federal agencies; brownfields, environmental investigations and cleanup; environmental insurance coverage litigation; and OSHA compliance.

His representative transactions have included obtaining a zero-percent allocation for a client at one of the nation's largest Superfund sites in New Jersey. As a result, the client, who had no nexus to the site, was the only party to receive contribution protection in the litigation's global settlement with the federal and state governments without having to make any settlement payment.

He also negotiated a consent order and agreement with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection to resolve historical air compliance issues and Title V permitting for a fiberboard manufacturer.

Scott also participated in the multi-year preparation of a Western Pennsylvania client's application for a residual waste disposal permit, as well as the prosecution of an appeal to the Pennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board when DEP denied the permit under its harms/benefits test.

He assisted an alternative energy client with obtaining a critical permit from the state DEP to develop a new wind farm, through strategic contacts with a former colleague at the agency.

After conducting targeted due diligence, he negotiated on behalf of a developer a favorable agreement with a leading international, Pittsburgh-based manufacturer for the purchase of a former R&D facility, including the negotiation of a Pollution Legal Liability insurance policy. The site presented significant redevelopment potential as a "brownfield."

He also developed and implemented a strategy to investigate and perform a risk-based "closure" of historical contamination from a former municipal incinerator at a currently-used site. The strategy, which needed to address significant local sensitivities, should facilitate successful sale of the property in the near future.

Additional Roles

His involvement in professional and community activities has included serving as a governing council member for the Pennsylvania Bar Association's Environmental, Mineral and Natural Resources Law Section (now the Environmental and Energy Law Section); and as a governing council member for the Allegheny County Bar Association's Environmental Law Section.

He was co-editor of the newsletter for the Pennsylvania Bar Association's Environmental, Mineral and Natural Resources Law Section from 1995 to 2002.

Scott has volunteered for the Southwestern Pennsylvania Household Hazardous Waste Task Force. In addition, he has served as a singer for a professional chamber choir and also as an elder, musician and strategic planner for the Allegheny Center Alliance Church.

He was also an organizer for the North Side Clinic, Christian Legal Aid of Pittsburgh and coordinator for the Regional Air Quality Roundtable.

Honors and Achievements

Scott is a frequent writer on topics pertaining to environmental law. He co-authored "Environmental Disclosure Obligations for Mothballed Sites" and wrote "New State FOIA in Pennsylvania to Take Effect January 1" for The Lawyers Journal in 2008.

He has written articles for The Lawyers Journal, the Cohen & Grigsby Review and Dynamic Business. In addition, he has been a faculty member and presenter for the Northwest Pennsylvania Chapter of the American Foundry Society, the Business of Brownfields Conference, the National Business Institute, the Pittsburgh Chapter of the Project Management Institute and the Pennsylvania Bar Institute.