Kerry L. McGrath

Kerry is a nationally recognized environmental lawyer who leads clients through high-stakes, controversial litigation and complex permitting for energy, infrastructure, and development projects across diverse industries. She partners with clients from project conception to execution, navigating challenging permitting issues, managing litigation risk, and securing critical permits for projects that often draw intense public and governmental attention. Her solutions-driven approach helps clients anticipate and overcome obstacles, ensuring defensible outcomes for even the most ambitious initiatives.

With over 15 years of experience, Kerry is deeply versed in the Clean Water Act (CWA), Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) Underground Injection Control (UIC) program, Endangered Species Act (ESA), National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA), and related statutes. She represents a wide spectrum of clients—utilities, mining, oil and gas, renewables, agriculture, consumer products, housing and development, trade associations, and industry coalitions—helping them shape and implement comprehensive compliance and permitting strategies that align with their business objectives and withstand regulatory and legal scrutiny.

Kerry regularly serves as project counsel for energy and infrastructure developments, representing clients through all phases of permitting, environmental review, and litigation. Her experience includes permitting and litigation for power generation facilities, oil and gas pipelines, electric transmission lines, mining and mineral exploration, carbon capture and sequestration (CCS), wind and solar energy, and data center projects. She is particularly skilled at building robust administrative records, anticipating litigation, and defending key permits before federal agencies and in court. She has argued several cases before the US EPA Environmental Appeals Board (EAB).

Kerry is a frequent speaker and panelist at national legal and industry forums and a prolific author on environmental, natural resources, and regulatory issues, including regular contributions to the firm’s environmental law blog, The Nickel Report. She also develops and leads client training on critical regulatory topics, supporting organizations in proactively managing risk and compliance.

• Lead counsel defending CCS project proponents’ EPA UIC Class VI permits in EPA EAB proceedings.
• Project counsel for electric transmission line project involving NEPA review, tribal consultation, historic preservation issues, and species consultation.
• Project counsel for mining clients, including recent successes for mining and exploration projects obtaining US Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) authorizations and associated NEPA reviews, ESA consultations, and tribal consultations.
• Project counsel for carbon storage project proponents in obtaining Class VI permits from EPA and state permitting agencies and related contested case hearings.
• Assists mining and manufacturing clients in FAST-41 permitting process.
• Represented utility in federal district court litigation defending NEPA reviews and in state court defending air permits for retirement of coal facilities and construction of new natural gas plant projects.
• Advised offshore wind project proponent on CWA and Rivers and Harbors Act permitting and related requirements, including for offshore and onshore transmission line components and related tribal consultation issues.
• Advises transportation client on NEPA and NHPA issues for new train infrastructure with federal financing.
• Lead counsel on federal CWA section 404 permitting matter involving client’s new mines and mine extension projects in Florida, involving key NEPA, protected species, and wetlands issues, and defense of permit in federal court.
• Advises onshore wind projects on protected species, eagle, and migratory bird take permitting, compliance, and related enforcement issues.
• Analyzes complex legal issues for an energy company, advising the client on strategic approaches to manage the EIS and permitting process. Representation involves coordinating with various agencies with responsibilities under NEPA, NHPA, ESA, and CWA.
• Advises electric utility and mining clients on environmental issues associated with Department of Energy, EXIM, and Department of War financing.
• Obtained a critical federal CWA NPDES discharge permit for facility on tribal land and successfully defended permit before the EPA EAB. The permit and related litigation involves essentially every major water issue EPA has addressed in the past few years, including “waters of the United States” jurisdictional determination, application of CWA section 316(b) requirements for cooling water intake structures, steam electric effluent limitation guidelines, hydrologic connection/Coal Combustion Residual (CCR) issues, water quality standards for features on tribal lands, and permit issues related to sovereign immunity.
• Represents developers, mining companies, agriculture interests, utilities, and pipeline companies on jurisdictional determinations, use of nationwide permits and other general permits, expedited and emergency permitting procedures, and mitigation requirements under CWA section 404.
• Provides long-term daily representation of an association of electric utilities on US water regulation developments, including development of many extensive technical and legal comments on EPA regulatory proposals.
• Counsels utilities on obtaining, renewing, and complying with state and federal NPDES permits, particularly for facilities with cooling water intake structures subject to CWA section 316(b) rule requirements.
• Advises clients on avian protection guidelines and related requirements and incidental take issues under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and Bald and Golden Eagle Protection.
• Counsels clients on the ESA section 7 consultation process for projects requiring federal permits and the ESA section 10 incidental take permit process for energy and development projects and operations.
• Advises electric utilities and other energy companies on permitting electric transmission and other structures across federal lands administered by the National Park Service, BLM, and US Forest Service.
• Advises interstate natural gas pipelines on environmental permitting and siting matters; regulatory compliance and litigation under the CWA, ESA, NEPA, and other federal environmental laws; and the interplay between EPA, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), and Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) regulations.
• Assists mineral exploration companies with application processes for exploration drilling on mining claims.

• Named a Rising Star in the District of Columbia (2026) and to the “40 & Under Hot List” (2018-2024), Benchmark Litigation
• Recommended for Environment: Regulatory (2021-2025) and Environment: Litigation (2021-2024), Legal 500 United States
• Selected as a member of the Top 500 Leading Energy Lawyers (2025), Green 500: Leaders in Environmental Law (2023-2024), and Top 500 Environmental and Energy Lawyers (2021, 2024-2025), Lawdragon
• Named a Best Lawyer for Environmental Law (2026), The Best Lawyers in America
• Named an Environmental Rising Star (2021), Law360

• Chair, Project Development Committee, ABA Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources
• Member, Women’s Energy Network
• Chair, Environmental Justice & Stakeholder Engagement Committee, The CCUS Commercialization Acceleration Consortium by Southern States Energy Board & University of Houston’s Center for Carbon Management in Energy