Speaker Bios
Ryan Haddad, Program Co-Chair
Partner
Reed Smith
Ryan Haddad is a partner in the Pittsburgh office of Reed Smith whose multidisciplinary energy transactional practice focuses on mergers and acquisitions and energy development and operations, primarily in the oil and gas and related sectors, including a burgeoning practice representing project developers in the carbon capture, utilization and sequestration (CCUS) industry. He graduated magna cum laude from the University of Pittsburgh and obtained his JD from American University, Washington College of Law, where he received the 2012 Advanced Oil and Gas Law Outstanding Student Award and served as Marketing Editor of Sustainable Development Law & Policy.
Kara Herrnstein, Program Co-Chair
Partner
Bricker Graydon
Kara Herrnstein, a partner and Co-Chair of the Solar practice group at Bricker Graydon, is an experienced energy attorney focusing on facilitating renewable generation in Ohio. She provides legal assistance and problem-solving to developers at every stage of their projects, from land access to permitting to operation. Her practice also includes litigation on behalf of a variety of energy companies including producers and midstream companies. In everything, she is passionate about helping her clients build Ohio into a major energy-producing state.
Prior to joining Bricker Graydon, Kara served as a law clerk to the Hon. Alan E. Norris on the United States Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals and as a staff attorney at the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, Georgia. She also served as a law clerk to the Hon. Michael H. Watson on the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio.
Britt A. Freund
Member
Steptoe & Johnson, PLLC
Britt Freund is a Member in Steptoe & Johnson, PLLC’s Southpointe, PA office. He concentrates his practice in mineral and energy law. He is an Assistant Practice Group Leader and an integral part of the firm’s Energy and Natural Resources Department. Britt represents coal and oil and gas producers, financial institutions, and mineral owners with regard to all aspects of real property development, mineral production and sales, and finance transactions. He is a graduate of Ithaca College and the Duquesne School of Law. Britt currently serves as President of the Energy & Mineral Law Foundation Board of Trustees.
Charles Fridge
CEO
Verde C02 CCS
Charles Fridge is the CEO of Verde C02 CCS. He is a seasoned energy executive with 30 years of business management and legal experience. Throughout his career, he has founded and managed a variety of Midstream and Upstream Oil & Gas companies with a continual emphasis on business profitability. Charles oversees and manages the project identification, development, and operational teams at Verde. Charles specializes in origination of Verde’s projects, business management, capital allocation, asset profitability, private partnership structuring, and tax equity agreements.
Keith B. Hall
Director, LSU’s John P. Laborde Energy Law Center
LSU Law School
Keith B. Hall is the Nesser Family Chair in Energy Law at Louisiana State University, where he also serves as Director of LSU’s Mineral Law Institute and its John P. Laborde Energy Law Center. Professor Hall is the co-author of three books on oil and gas law and a co-editor of a fourth book on the subject. Before joining the LSU faculty, he practiced law for sixteen years and before that worked as an engineer for eight years.
Margaret C. (Marcy) Hupp
Senior Counsel
Perkins Coie
Margaret C. (Marcy) Hupp is Senior Counsel in Perkins Coie’s Seattle office who serves as Firmwide Co-Chair of the Clean Technology Practice group. She counsels clients assessing and pursuing environmental sustainability goals. She advises companies on strategic business decisions, industry trends, and policy matters related to climate change; carbon reductions; and other environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues. With an LL.M. in sustainable international development, Marcy helps clients understand evolving climate change-related policies, carbon offset protocols, and environmental justice initiatives. In addition to her L.L.M. from the University of Washington School of Law, Marcy obtained her J.D. from Tulane University Law School summa cum laude and Order of the Coif where she was Senior Articles Editor of the Tulane Law Review, and her B.A. from Georgetown University.
Matt Mangum
Business Opportunity Manager
Shell
Matt Mangum is a Business Opportunity Manager at Shell where he is responsible for identifying, developing, and executing carbon capture and storage projects that support Shell’s ambition to become a net-zero emissions energy business by 2050. Much of his focus is in areas where the CCS market is in very early development and may lack basic regulatory building blocks and existing technical solutions. He works to create value propositions, business cases, commercial models, contracts, and partnerships that enable the deployment of scalable solutions for capturing and storing CO2 emissions. He is leader with a clear passion for energy and deep expertise in decarbonization, negotiation, joint ventures, acquisitions and divestments, oil and gas operations, regulatory development, government advocacy, interrogation and business development.
Robert Pillow
former Assistant General Counsel
Navigator C02
Robert Pillow is the former Assistant General Counsel for Navigator CO2 in Houston. Robert has spent the majority of his career counseling midstream companies both in private practice and as in-house counsel. His practice focuses on drafting and negotiating commercial energy deals and managing FERC regulatory compliance. Since starting out in the oil and gas sectors, Robert expanded his practice to the carbon capture, utilization, and sequestration industry. Robert has advised in-house clients regarding CCUS project development, CO2 transportation services agreements, offtake agreements, and strategies to monetize environmental attributes generated by CCUS projects.
Priya G. Prasad
Senior Attorney
United States Department of Commerce
Priya G. Prasad is a Senior Attorney with the Commercial Law Development Program (CLDP) in the Office of the General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Commerce, where she works on CLDP’s energy initiatives. Prior to joining CLDP, Ms. Prasad was an attorney for nine years at Exxon Mobil Corp., where she worked on intellectual property, environmental, and public affairs & government relations matters. Ms. Prasad received her J.D. from the University of Houston Law Center, M.B.A. from Columbia Business School, and B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Rice University. Prior to law school, she worked as a Process Engineer for two years at Chevron Corp.
John E. Rhine
Partner
Dentons Bingham Greenebaum
John E. Rhine is a partner in the Evansville office of Dentons Bingham Greenebaum whose practice focuses on carbon capture and sequestration, and coal, oil and gas law and commercial transactions. He has represented many of the nation’s largest mineral producers and lenders in transactions and litigation as well as many entrants into the carbon capture and sequestration field. He is a member of the Energy & Mineral Law Foundation Board of Trustees.
Tara Righetti
Occidental Chair in Energy and Environmental Policy and Professor
University of Wyoming College of Law
Tara Righetti is the Occidental Chair in Energy and Environmental Policy at the School of Energy Resources and the Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources and a Professor in the University of Wyoming College of Law. She is the co-director of the Nuclear Energy Research Center. Professor Righetti served as a Fulbright Research Scholar for the 2021-2022 academic year at the Université de Lille in Lille, France. She previously directed the Professional Land Management concentration from January 2016 to August 2020. Prior to joining the University of Wyoming in the fall of 2014, she served in legal and executive roles in a privately owned upstream oil and gas company.
Professor Righetti is a member of the state bars of Texas and California and is a Certified Professional Landman and member of AAPL. Professor Righetti has served as a member of the U.S. Technical Advisory Group to ISO TC-265- Carbon Dioxide Capture, Transportation, and Geologic Storage since July of 2022 and has chaired the Diversity and Inclusion Committee for the Foundation for Natural Resources and Energy Law since 2023.
Professor Righetti’s research focuses on subsurface property law and administrative regulation of energy development and industrial decarbonization technologies including nuclear energy and carbon capture and storage. She teaches classes related to oil and gas law, climate law, and the governance and regulation of geoengineering and advanced energy technologies. She has also led students on a summer natural resource field practicum in Wyoming and to Peru.
Megan Skiba
Associate
Reed Smith
Megan Skiba is an associate in the Pittsburgh office of Reed Smith who focuses her practice on representing energy clients, primarily in the upstream oil and gas and carbon capture and sequestration sectors. Megan counsels energy clients on matters involving acquisitions and dispositions, joint ventures, CCUS project development, oil and gas and pore space leasing, corporate governance, project development, distressed asset sales, commercial agreements, and other documents associated with natural gas operations, CCUS, and energy development. She is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Pittsburgh School of Law.
Chris Slagle
Partner
Bricker Graydon
Chris Slagle is Partner In Charge of Bricker Graydon’s Marietta office, and chair of the firm’s Government Relations group. He practices in the areas of government relations; real estate, including land use, development and zoning; banking law and financial services; transportation and logistics; consumer finance, and mortgage banking. Chris is also a member of the firm’s Shale Task Force practice as well as the Southeast Ohio team.
Chris is a former spokesman, speechwriter and federal policy liaison for the former Ohio Attorney General and Ohio Auditor of State Betty D. Montgomery; senior staff member and Director of Communications for Ohio Congressman Paul E. Gillmor; legislative aide for former Ohio State Senator Karen L. Gillmor; and district representative for former Ohio Congressman Frank A. Cremeans.
Paul Stockman
Partner
Kazmarek Mowrey Cloud Laseter
Paul Stockman is a partner at Kazmarek Mowrey Cloud Laseter who has a broad-based complex trial and appellate litigation practice, with substantial focus on the litigation, trial and appeal of environmental, energy, insurance coverage, and toxic tort disputes in a variety of fora. Paul also has decades of experience representing industrial clients in a variety of environmental disputes, including actions under CERCLA, RCRA, the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, and analogous state environmental laws. Paul obtained his B.A. from Harvard University. After completing law school at the University of Virginia School of Law, Paul served as law clerk to the Hon. Judge Ellsworth A. Van Graafeiland of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Before joining Kazmarek Mowrey Cloud Laseter LLP, opening its Pittsburgh office, Paul was a partner at K&L Gates LLP and McGuireWoods LLP.