Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP announced today that prominent environmental attorney Matt Paulson will join the firm as a partner, resident in Austin, Texas, where he currently is based, and will head up Katten’s Environmental Aspects of Energy Production Practice.

“Matt’s skill and breadth of experience in environmental law will further enhance Katten’s strong reputation in this area,” said Vincent A. F. Sergi, Katten’s national managing partner. “Katten’s Environmental Practice is robust and growing, and our team’s experience is multifaceted, which allows us to counsel clients across a wide spectrum of environmental issues.”

Paulson joins Katten’s highly regarded Environmental Practice, which is led by prominent environmental attorneys Chuck Knauss and Steve Solow out of Washington, D.C., and which includes practices in the San Francisco Bay Area and Chicago.

Paulson commented, “I’m thrilled to be joining the 30-plus experienced, high-quality attorneys in Katten’s national Environmental Practice, plus its strong Appellate Practice and its White Collar Defense, Internal Investigations and Compliance Practice, which includes 17 former prosecutors with broad investigative and trial experience. I am excited about the opportunities and synergies our practices provide in the energy sector and for my clients generally.”

Paulson focuses his work on environmental permitting, compliance, internal investigations, enforcement, litigation and crisis response. He is an authority on the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act and Occupational Safety and Health Act, and has broad experience in Superfund and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). He has been recognized by Chambers USA for his environmental and climate change expertise. He has a strong track record of obtaining environmental permits in contested situations and regularly advises clients on regulation, litigation and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, especially in the wake of the development of a GHG permitting program in Texas by the Environmental Protection Agency. Paulson is currently handling numerous GHG permits in Texas for major companies.

“Matt has a stellar reputation in the environmental community and has established himself as a go-to attorney in Texas for air, water, endangered species, enforcement and greenhouse gas issues,” said Knauss. “We are thrilled to have someone with such great hands-on experience in obtaining those hard-to-get permits join our team, and we look forward to working with him.”

“Matt has an incredible range of experience in environmental law, enforcement and rapid response to environmental incidents and is extraordinarily well-respected, not only in Texas, but nationally,” said Solow, former chief of the US Department of Justice Environmental Crimes Section, who just this month won for a leading water services company a complete acquittal after a jury trial in a major Clean Water Act criminal enforcement case. “We look forward to Matt working with us to build on our recent strategic growth. He’s a great fit for our clients because he brings deep and sophisticated regulatory knowledge as well as practical crisis response experience.”

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