Conference Co-Chairs
Karen Greenwell
Wyatt Tarrant and Combs
Karen Greenwell is a member of Wyatt Tarrant and Combs’s Executive Committee and a Co-Team Leader of the Natural Resources & Environmental Service Team. She concentrates her practice in the areas of mineral, energy and property law, and commercial litigation.
With 30 years of legal experience in the mineral and energy industry, Ms. Greenwell has assisted coal, oil, gas and energy industry clients with all manner of transactions, including leasing matters, asset acquisitions and divestitures, corporate mergers and stock acquisitions, and bankruptcy sales. Ms. Greenwell’s experience in litigating property, contract and business tort disputes, as well as in other types of commercial litigation, gives her an unusual breadth of experience and perspective in dealing with issues affecting mineral and energy industry clients.
Ms. Greenwell is a Trustee of the Energy & Mineral Law Foundation, a director of the Kentucky Oil and Gas Association, an adjunct professor at the University of Kentucky College of Law, and a frequent speaker and author on energy topics for organizations such as the Energy and Mineral Law Foundation, the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation, the Institute for Energy Law, and the Conference of Government Mining Attorneys.
Wyatt is a member of the Kentucky Consortium for Carbon Storage, and Ms. Greenwell is one of the leaders of its task force on legal issues relating to carbon capture and storage.
In addition to litigating business tort, property and contract disputes, Ms. Greenwell has negotiated and prepared mineral leases and been involved in mineral-related acquisitions and lending transactions.
Guy Hensley
Warrior Met Coal
Guy Hensley is Counsel for Warrior Met Coal, which owns and operates underground metallurgical coal mines and natural gas wells in Alabama. Having provided legal support for these operations since 1998, Guy’s primary focus is litigation. Guy earned his J.D. from Cumberland School of Law in Birmingham, Alabama, and is licensed to practice in the State of Alabama and before the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Guy is admitted to practice in the State and Federal Courts of Alabama as well as the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. Prior to law school, Guy earned a Bachelor of Science in Systems and Control Engineering from the University of West Florida in the Panhandle of Florida, where Guy hails from and dreams of returning to.
Larry Skrzysowski
EQT
Lawrence (Larry Ski) Skrzysowski is Director of Land Acquisitions at EQT Corporation in Pittsburgh, PA, where he oversees the company’s acquisitions and horizontal well development across all of West Virginia and Ohio. Larry began his career in the oil and gas industry with Chesapeake Energy in Oklahoma City, OK, working in Chesapeake’s Eastern Land and Legal Department. Prior to joining EQT, Larry was District Landman with Rice Energy in Canonsburg, PA overseeing the company’s Ohio acquisition and development program. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics from Temple University, a Master’s degree in Business Administration from Wilkes University and earned his Juris Doctor from West Virginia University College of Law. He is a licensed attorney in both the commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the state of West Virginia and is a member in good standing of both state bars. Finally, Larry holds the AAPL’s designation of Certified Professional Landman (CPL).
Speakers
Jeremiah Byrne
Frost Brown Todd
Jeremiah, a Partner at Frost Brown Todd, is a trial lawyer who concentrates his practice in tort and commercial litigation. With first chair trial experience in multiple state and federal jurisdictions, Jeremiah leads litigation teams to successfully defend catastrophic personal injury, wrongful death, and business claims. He represents national restaurant chains, gas and electric utility companies, product manufacturers, motor carriers, insurers, and other local, regional, and national companies.
As Chair of the firm’s Product, Tort, & Insurance Litigation Practice Group, Jeremiah has over two decades of experience with all stages of litigation: leading client-focused teams for accident investigation, prelitigation dispute resolution, arbitration, pretrial discovery, trial, and appeal. Jeremiah also is often retained in the months leading up to trial as “parachute trial counsel” to assist with case valuation, evidentiary analysis, trial strategy and preparation, and leading the trial team. He is regularly retained to help clients limit their exposure from claims ranging from large-scale disasters resulting in catastrophic injuries to residential fires and consumer product injury claims.
Jeremiah leads the firm’s Dram Shop Litigation Team and also litigates complex business disputes, truck wreck cases, insurance coverage issues, indemnity claims, and bad faith actions.
Christopher L. Callas
Jackson Kelly
Christopher L. Callas is a member at Jackson Kelly PLLC practicing in the Firm’s Charleston, West Virginia, office. His practice centers on utility regulation and energy project development, advising traditional utility clients as well as energy project developers seeking to navigate the regulatory hurdles associated with siting wind, solar, gas, and other energy projects. Chris reckons that he has worked in some capacity on every wind project operating in West Virginia today.
Kent Chandler
R Street Institute
Kent A. Chandler is a Resident Senior Fellow at the R Street Institute and recently served as the Chairman of the Public Service Commission (PSC) of Kentucky. While a PSC Commissioner, Chandler served on the board of directors of the National Regulatory Research Institute, the Organization of MISO States and the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners. Chandler also served as president of the Mid-Atlantic Conference of Regulatory Utilities Commissioners and the Organization of PJM States, Inc.
Chandler has frequently testified before state legislative committees, and is an active participant on issues before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), including as a panelist in a number of technical conferences. Before arriving at the PSC, Chandler was an attorney in the Kentucky Attorney General’s Office of Rate Intervention. In that position, he regularly represented consumers before the PSC and FERC in electric, gas, water and sewer utility cases, and participated in stakeholder processes at Regional Transmission Organizations (RTOs). Chandler earned a Bachelor of Science in finance from Murray State University. He received a Juris Doctor from Northern Kentucky University’s Salmon P. Chase College of Law.
Andrew Cutright
Cutright Law
Andrew Cutright is an attorney licensed in West Virginia and managing member of Cutright Law, PLLC, located in Morgantown, West Virginia. His general areas of practice include energy, real estate, and business transactions, representing both landowners and energy sector companies with buying, selling, leasing, and mineral rights. He also assists mineral owners with issues associated with mineral royalty payments. Mr. Cutright earned a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Dickinson College, in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and a law degree from West Virginia University School of Law.
Kevin Douglass
Babst Calland
Kevin Douglass, a shareholder at Babst Calland, is a commercial litigator with significant trial experience. In addition, he is a certified mediator and has served as an arbitrator. Mr. Douglass represents coal and natural gas clients in litigation and administrative proceedings. For many years, he served as editor of the Firm’s Babst Calland Report, an annual publication focused on the energy industry. Mr. Douglass is past president of the Energy & Mineral Law Foundation (EMLF) and serves on its Board of Trustees. In 2018, he was the recipient of the EMLF’s John L. McClaugherty Award. Mr. Douglass has been recognized as a Pennsylvania Super Lawyer and listed in The Best Lawyers of America. ® He has considerable experience providing business counseling and litigation services to business owners, directors and officers with respect to their contractual rights and fiduciary obligations. In recent years, he has managed sensitive company internal investigations concerning the conduct of owners, officers and other personnel.
Aditya Dynar
Pacific Legal Foundation
Adi Dynar is an attorney in Pacific Legal Foundation’s Separation of Powers practice. He primarily litigates cases on agency adjudication, judicial deference, and federal agency overreach, among other issues. He has also authored amicus briefs in major Supreme Court cases on Chevron deference, extraterritorial regulation, and the Indian Child Welfare Act, among others.
Adi has extensive experience protecting people’s civil liberties as a litigator, speaker, and activist. He believes that the federal and state constitutions structurally guarantee freedom and protection of individual rights. Separation of powers and due process are structural protections that are as important as the substantive rights the constitutions protect. He was successful in convincing Justice Clarence Thomas of the United States Supreme Court to say that the Brand X decision, which Justice Thomas authored for the Court in 2005, was wrongly decided. In admitting so, Justice Thomas said, “Brand X has taken this Court to the precipice of administrative absolutism” and “it poignantly lays bare the flaws of our entire executive-deference jurisprudence.”
He has spoken and written on a variety of legal issues, including freedom of speech, administrative law, civil rights, and immigration law, among others. He has authored policy papers and has published with The Wall Street Journal, The Daily Journal, and The Hill.
He earned his law degree from the University of Toledo College of Law. He has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in accounting, finance, and economics. In his free time, he enjoys reading and planning trips to cities with roller coasters.
Carrie Grundmann
Spilman Thomas & Battle
Carrie H. Grundmann is a Member with the law firm of Spilman Thomas & Battle, PLLC, and serves as the Chair of the Firm’s Energy Practice Group. For more than a decade, Ms. Grundmann has represented large consumers of electricity before statute regulatory commissions in Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, North Carolina, Illinois, and South Carolina, among others, on wide range of energy regulatory matters.
Ms. Grundmann is a native of Covington, Virginia. She earned her Juris Doctor from the College of William & Mary, Marshall Wythe School of Law and her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Criminal Justice from Roanoke College.
Keith Hall
Louisiana State University College of Law
Keith B. Hall is the Nesser Family Chair in Energy Law at Louisiana State University, where he serves as Director of the Mineral Law Institute and as Director of the John P. Laborde Energy Law Center. He teaches Mineral Rights, International Petroleum Transactions, Civil Law Property, and Energy Law & Regulation.
Professor Hall is the co-author of three books on oil and gas law— (1) The Law of Oil and Gas (a national casebook), (2) International Petroleum Law and Transactions, and (3)Hydraulic Fracturing: a Guide to Environmental and Real Property Issues. He also is an editor of The Regulation of Decommissioning, Abandonment and Reuse Initiatives in the Oil and Gas Industry, a book on decommissioning regulations around the world.
Professor Hall’s shorter publications have focused on carbon capture and storage, implied covenants in oil and gas leases, joint operating agreements, pooling and unitization, induced seismicity, and legal issues relating to hydraulic fracturing. He also has worked on issues relating to the right to extract lithium from produced water or other brine.
In addition to teaching at LSU, Professor Hall has taught energy law classes as a visiting professor at Baku State University in Azerbaijan, as a visiting professor at the University of Pittsburgh, and as an adjunct professor at Loyola School of Law in New Orleans. Professor Hall serves as Editor-in-Chief of the Institute for Energy Law’s “Oil & Gas E-Report.” He is active in the Energy & Mineral Law Foundation, the Foundation for Natural Resources and Energy Law (formerly known as the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation), and the Association of International Energy Negotiators.
Professor Hall has served as an expert witness for oil and gas disputes arising in Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Louisiana, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, as well as outside the U.S. He also has served as an arbitrator and drafted amicus briefs. Before joining the LSU faculty in 2012, Professor Hall practiced law at a major firm in New Orleans for sixteen years, and before that he worked for eight years as a chemical engineer in the petrochemical industry. He graduated from Loyola Law School in 1996 (J.D.) and from Louisiana State University in 1985 (B.S., Chem. Eng.).
Kristeena L. Johnson
Dinsmore & Shohl, LLP
Kristeena L. Johnson is a partner in Dinsmore & Shohl LLP’s Lexington, KY office. Kristeena earned her BA from Eastern Kentucky University, and her JD from University of Kentucky College of Law. Her practice focuses on commercial litigation matters, including claims of breach of contract, breach of non-compete agreements, breach of fiduciary duties and trade secret misappropriation. She also has experience defending defamation, wrongful death, Title VII, civil rights and Consumer Protection Act matters on behalf of both large and small corporate clients. She has handled a number of complex litigation matters and is adept in representing clients in a variety of settings including trials, arbitrations and evidentiary hearings.
Bruce Kramer
Texas Tech University College of Law
McGinnis Lochridge
Bruce M. Kramer is the Maddox Professor of Law Emeritus at Texas Tech University School of Law and Of Counsel at McGinnis Lochridge. He received a B.A. in International Relations from UCLA, a J.D. from the UCLA School of Law and an L.L.M. degree from the University of Illinois College of Law. He is the co-author of several multi-volume treatises on oil and gas law including Williams & Meyers Oil & Gas Law (since 1996) and the Law of Pooling and Unitization. In addition to teaching oil and gas law, Prof. Kramer also taught State and Local Government Law and Land Use Planning between 1974 and 2007 when he retired from full-time teaching.
Chacey Mahouitre
Jackson Kelly
Chacey R. Malhouitre is a Member of Jackson Kelly’s Financial Services and Coal industry groups focusing primarily on commercial litigation and bankruptcy. She is the Assistant Practice Group Leader to the Firm’s Transactional teams. She brings extensive knowledge to the coal industry where Chacey also has experience in work-out situations and bankruptcy proceedings, including transactions with debtors, protection of credit rights, and defending preference actions. She was a recipient of the 2021 ABI Asset Sale of the Year for the sale of assets in the In re Lighthouse Resources, Inc., et al. proceedings, is a member of the American Bankruptcy Institute, International Women’s Insolvency & Restructuring Confederation, and Turnaround Management Association.
Michael Moore
Steptoe & Johnson
Michael Moore dedicates his practice to labor and employment matters. He is often tapped to represent public and private employers as they navigate high-pressure traditional labor relations issues. He has arbitrated and acted as first chair in labor negotiations in every corner of West Virginia and has provided direct guidance to a variety of clients in all phases of traditional labor work. From assisting clients during union organization campaigns to collective bargaining and arbitrations, Michael has become a go-to lawyer for clients in this arena. Michael has also tried claims before the National Labor Relations Board. Additionally, Michael has a wealth of experience in providing advice and guidance to employers in the non-union setting and has litigated nearly every type of employment law claim actionable in West Virginia.
Mary Beth Naumann
Jackson Kelly
Mary Elisabeth Naumann is a Member of Jackson Kelly’s Lexington, KY office. In her 24 years at Jackson Kelly, Mary Beth has focused on coal and bankruptcy law. Mary Beth specializes in commercial restructuring, creditor’s rights, purchases of assets in bankruptcy, and defending against preference actions and claims against fiduciaries. She recently represented the Debtor in the In re: Inmet Mining, LLC proceeding and Debtors in the In re Lighthouse Resources, Inc., et al. proceedings. She has been named Best Lawyers’® Lexington Bankruptcy and Creditor Debtor Rights/Insolvency and Reorganization Law “Lawyer of the Year” and being listed in The Best Lawyers in America© for Bankruptcy and Creditor Debtor Rights/Insolvency and Reorganization Law. In addition to be a member of the American Bankruptcy Institute, Mary Beth is an active member of the International Women’s Insolvency & Restructuring Confederation.
Leslie Nelson
Haley & Aldrich
Leslie Nelson, P.E. is a Senior Environmental Engineer at Haley & Aldrich with over twenty-six years of experience in environmental consulting. She is a graduate of Michigan Technological University with a B.S. in environmental engineering and is a licensed professional engineer in multiple states. She works with clients across many industries with extensive experience in the mining and oil and gas industries. Leslie specializes in complex geoenvironmental studies, emerging contaminants, feasibility studies, remedial design and implementation, and environmental permitting. Her work experience extends across more than 30 states and several Canadian provinces, interfacing and negotiating with federal, state, and municipal regulatory agencies across multiple districts on behalf of her clients. She is involved in the Michigan Aggregates Association on the Environmental Committee and currently serves on the board of directors for the West Michigan Air and Waste Management Association and the Grand Rapids Chapter of the National Association of Women in Construction.
Will Prochot
Greenberg Traurig
Will Prochot is a Shareholder at the law firm of Greenberg Traurig LLP. Will litigates cases brought under the Black Lung Benefits Act before the Department of Labor and federal circuit courts. He has represented numerous mining and insurance companies at hundreds of trials and hearings litigating complex medical, insurance and administrative law issues and challenging the validity of agency regulations. Will received his J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School.
Michael Pusateri
Greenberg Traurig
Michael Pusateri is a Shareholder at the firm of Greenberg Traurig LLP. Michael has represented the mining and insurance industries in regulatory challenges and adjudications across the country. On behalf of these and other clients, Michael has authored more than 200 appellate briefs and has presented oral argument in five federal courts of appeals. He has briefed and argued cases centering on the Appointments Clause, burdens of proof, and the Chevron Doctrine, among others. He has also served as an adjunct professor of law at the George Washington University Law School and, more recently, at the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University, where he teaches upper-level appellate advocacy. Michael is a graduate of Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations and Duke Law School.
Christopher Robinson
Frost Brown Todd
Chris is a trial lawyer in Frost Brown Todd’s litigation department with jury experience in multiple forums. Chris has served as lead counsel at trial for a variety of clients, ranging from major agricultural equipment manufacturers to franchise operations on a nationwide basis. While he represents product manufacturers in fire and explosion matters, Chris also represents clients in a variety of commercial disputes including franchise agreement interpretation and intellectual property enforcement. He has experience at both the trial and appellate levels and has numerous reported opinions. He is a graduate of the University of Kentucky and the University of Kentucky Rosenberg College of Law.
Courtney Ross Samford
Dinsmore & Shohl, LLP
Courtney Ross Samford is of counsel in Dinsmore & Shohl LLP’s Lexington, KY office. Courtney earned her BA from Centre College, and her JD from University of Kentucky College of Law. Her practice focuses on labor and employment law. Her experience includes representing employers at every stage of the litigation process in all areas of employment law, including claims of employment discrimination, harassment, retaliation, or breach of contract. Courtney regularly guides her clients through various administrative proceedings before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Kentucky Commission on Human Rights, and Kentucky Labor Cabinet. She also assists clients with hiring and firing, investigations, compensation, leave, handbooks, training, and other employment related issues.
Jennifer Simon
Kazmarek Mowrey Cloud Laseter
Jennifer is a Partner at Kazmarek Mowrey Cloud Laseter who engages in a wide variety of environmental, energy, toxic tort and product liability matters. In litigation, she represents clients in EPA and state agency cost recovery actions; private suits involving CERCLA, RCRA, the Clean Water Act (CWA) and various state counterpart statutes and common laws; state and federal regulatory enforcement actions; National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) challenges; insurance coverage disputes; toxic tort and product liability actions, including multidistrict litigation involving PFAS; and underground gas storage disputes.
Jennifer received her Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, from Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, in 2002. She received her J.D. from Columbia Law School in New York in 2005. While at Columbia, she served as the Assistant Executive Editor of the Columbia Business Law Review and was a student clerk for Hon. Joanna Seybert, U. S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
Jennifer joined KMCL Law in 2011 after practicing environmental law and litigation at King & Spalding LLP in Atlanta and Mayer Brown LLP in Chicago.
Carl Staiger
Buchanan Ingersoll Rooney
Carl is a Shareholder of Buchanan Ingersoll Rooney and is a member of the firm’s tax section and concentrates his practice in business law and taxation, with a specific focus on energy-related projects. Carl frequently represents clients involved in renewable energy and energy transition projects, including solar, wind, carbon sequestration, biodiesel and renewable fuels. He has represented investors and developers in connection with the development, acquisition and disposition of renewable projects.
Carl is a graduate of Rutgers College, the Widener University School of Law, and has an LLM in Taxation from Temple University Beasley School of Law.
John Unice
bit-x-bit
John Unice, Chief Executive Officer of bit-x-bit, directs the business, strategic and overall operations of bit-x-bit. Providing exceptional high-level expertise and guidance to bit-x-bit’s clients, John draws on two decades of experience as chief corporate counsel and as a trial lawyer in major corporate and large law firm settings. John’s wide-ranging portfolio includes litigating sophisticated cases, utilizing complex electronic evidence and leading digital risk-mitigation initiatives, both in the U.S. and internationally.
Before joining bit-x-bit, John was Assistant Secretary and a senior legal advisor at the Pittsburgh headquarters of Covestro LLC and, prior, at Bayer Corporation, advancing his clients’ interests in highly regulated industries. At Covestro, he oversaw legal affairs for the company’s U.S.-based polycarbonate business and held global responsibility for the company’s litigation docket. John also led and collaborated on a range of strategic e-discovery, cybersecurity, and digital records management initiatives to mitigate corporate risk and win cases.