Contact:
Phone: 215-665-3058
Fax: 215-665-3165
Email: joseph.mcgovern@obermayer.com
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Office:
Philadelphia, PA
One Penn Center, 19th Floor
1617 John F. Kennedy Boulevard
Philadelphia, PA 19103-1895

Practice Areas:
Environmental

Education:
Boston University (BA '73)
New England School of Law (JD '76)

Professional/Civic Activities:
Lecturer:  EPA Region II Environmental Regulation Conference;
Lecturer:  U.S. Dept. of Justice, Environmental Enforcement Section Lecture Series;
Lecturer:   U.S. Dept. of Justice, Attorney General's Advocacy Institute;
Student Advisor: Trial Advocacy Workshop, Harvard Law School;
Leader of Explorer Post 912: (Careers in the law), Exploring Division of Philadelphia Council of Boy Scouts of America;
Board Member: Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, Bethesda, MD;
Patient Liaison: Family Support Services, St. Christopher’s Hospital, Philadelphia, PA;
Member: Cystic Fibrosis Patient and Family Advisory Board, The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, PA;
Cabinet Member: World Affairs Council of Philadelphia; and
President: “Harley Riders of Ocean City” Motorcycle Club

Joseph J. McGovern is a senior partner at Obermayer Rebmann Maxwell & Hippel LLP and chairman of the firm’s seven-lawyer Environmental Law Department.  Mr. McGovern has over 30 years’ experience in a wide variety of practice areas.  During the last 20 years he has concentrated primarily on environmental law and litigation.

Mr. McGovern represents a diverse client base, including multinational corporations, regionally prominent businesses and individuals.  He is special environmental counsel for clients based in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Ohio, New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Michigan.

Mr. McGovern has tried numerous cases to verdict.  He has handled a dozen jury trials.  Within the past five years he has litigated environmental claims arising from high-rise office building fires; electrical equipment failures; pipeline accidents; hazardous materials spills; historic waste disposal practices; and alleged non-compliance with federal and state regulations applicable to manufacturers and recyclers.

Mr. McGovern has also successfully represented corporate officers alleged to have violated criminal provisions of the Federal Clean Water Act.  He has conducted an “in house” investigation on behalf of the board of directors of a company whose president received a target letter.  He presently represents a company and a senior manager alleged to have violated the False Claims Act.

Mr. McGovern’s experience in technical disciplines, e.g., environmental sampling, risk assessment, fraud investigations, residential construction techniques and certain manufacturing processes has led to several recent invitations to handle non-environmental cases.

Currently, for example, in addition to overseeing the work of his department, including active settlement negotiations at the  Swope Oil Superfund Site, implementation of the remedy at the Crater Resources Superfund Site under a consent decree and representation of a Connecticut municipality in U.S. v. Beckman Coulter, Inc., et al., (D.N.J.) (Combefill South Landfill Superfund Site),

Similarly, Mr. McGovern was recently appointed by the Bankruptcy Court to serve as special litigation counsel to a Chapter 7 Trustee, to pursue claims against certain officers, directors, Indenture Trustees and nationally prominent lenders to recover over $700 million wrongfully converted in an Enron-like scheme that forced the company into bankruptcy and left 22,000 (mostly elderly) investors with nothing.

(In Re: American Business Financial Services, Inc., et al. Chapter 7, Adversary No. 06-50826. (Bankr. D. Del.) and (Miller v. Santilli, et al. (C.C.P. Philadelphia). 

Prior to joining Obermayer in 1990, Mr. McGovern was senior counsel in the Environmental Enforcement Section of the U.S.  Department of Justice.  For four years he served as litigation team leader in high priority enforcement cases brought under Superfund, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act. While with the Justice Department, Mr. McGovern was one of the government’s principal litigators in numerous cases of national significance.

Before joining the Environmental Enforcement Section, Mr. McGovern served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts.

Mr. McGovern received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Boston University and his Juris Doctor from New England School of Law, where he was a member of the Law Review.

He has published a series of monographs on topical issues arising under federal environmental laws and has frequently planned and presented environmental law courses and in-house training seminars.  He spends considerable time mentoring young attorneys at Obermayer.  

Mr. McGovern is a member of the American, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, District of Columbia, Massachusetts and Boston Bar Associations.  He has earned an AV ® rating from Martindale-Hubbell.

Mr. McGovern served as lead counsel in the following federal cases: