Mary Katherine H. Stukes

Mary Katherine Stukes is head of the firm’s Environmental practice. She advises clients on environmental issues involved in all types of business transactions, as well as regulatory compliance issues and environmental litigation. Ranked in Chambers Partners USA since 2017, clients describe her as a “zealous but practical advocate.”

Mary Katherine helps manufacturers, real estate developers, lenders, local governments, and other clients find creative solutions in real estate, financing, and corporate transactions involving environmental risk.

Mary Katherine regularly leads her real estate clients through the process of obtaining brownfields agreements for redevelopment of contaminated properties. She negotiates agreements with environmental agencies and counsels clients on eligibility, assessment, tax benefits, and effective structuring of associated real estate and financing transactions.

She also counsels manufacturers, lenders, and other corporate clients on a broad range of environmental risk and compliance issues. Her work in this area includes release investigation and remediation oversight, incident closure, environmental permitting, audits, reporting, and self-disclosure, participation in CERCLA potentially responsible party (PRP) negotiations, appeals of agency orders and negotiation of consent orders, defense of notices of violation and enforcement actions, assistance with hazardous and solid waste and materials handling and disposal practices, stormwater and wastewater management issues, advice on the rapidly changing topics of emerging contaminants, state and federal wetlands and other natural resource issues, and other aspects of regulatory compliance across a variety of state and federal regulatory programs.

Mary Katherine is an experienced litigator in federal, state, and administrative courts. She has represented clients in disputes over contamination, water quality and sedimentation issues, PFAS, landfills, asbestos-containing materials, underground storage tanks, as well as citizen suits, criminal investigations, and a variety of other environmental issues.

“She’s practical, knows the substance very well, and could get down to the issues quickly,” one of Mary Katherine’s clients told Chambers USA, which develops rankings using in-depth interviews and objective research. Another client praised her ability to navigate what can be a complex regulatory landscape: “Mary Katherine helped break down the walls and get the process moving.”