Program Overview
Who Will Benefit from Attending
Litigation and environmental attorneys and consultants embroiled in the rapidly growing area of PFAS litigation, legal and technical water practitioners, land use planners, and other environmental professionals
Why You will Benefit from Attending
This comprehensive conference is designed for public and private entities, attorneys, and consultants involved in the ever-evolving area of PFAS regulation and litigation. The focus is on providing key updates on PFAS regulatory and congressional action and initiatives, important litigation developments in the aqueous film-forming foam multi-district litigation (AFFF MDL) in South Carolina and high-profile PFAS litigation outside the AFFF MDL, and discussing the handling of PFAS liabilities in the bankruptcy case of Kidde Fenwal Inc./National Foam, a significant manufacturer of AFFF.
Nearly every state and the federal government have taken regulatory action concerning PFAS and there are now thousands of PFAS lawsuits across the country. Given the broad universe of chemicals that fall into the category of PFAS, the substantial costs to investigate and remediate PFAS in the environment, and the rapidly developing science relating to PFAS and associations with health effects, regulatory and litigation activity are expected to increase moving forward.
This conference is your opportunity to hear from a faculty that is intimately involved in PFAS regulatory and litigation matters, representing key public and private sector clients across a range of environmental and personal injury proceedings. We hope that you will join us in this interactive and timely conference.
For those attending in person, plan to stay for the cocktail hour at the end of the day.
La Fonda is holding a block of rooms for our participants. Register for the conference early and make your hotel reservation as soon as possible to take advantage of La Fonda's special conference rate. Sleeping rooms sold out quickly last year.
~ Kegan A. Brown, Esq. of Lowenstein Sandler and
John D.S. Gilmour, Esq. of Kelley Drye & Warren, Program Co-Chairs
What You Will Learn
- Evolving PFAS regulations
- Prospects for Congressional action
- State litigation updates
- Removal of state cases to federal court
- MDL 2873 AFFF Products Liability litigation
- KFI/National Foam Bankruptcy Developments
What Participants Have Said About Similar Programs
- Good panels and presentations. Nice Program!”
- The conference was excellent, one of the few with a balance of plaintiff's and defense counsel participate, plus veteran technical experts deeply involved in PFAS issues.
- Great conference!
Wednesday, September 23, 2026
9:00 am
Introduction & Overview
John D.S. Gilmour, Esq.
, Program Co-Chair
Kelley Drye & Warren / Houston, TX
Kegan A. Brown, Esq.
, Program Co-Chair
Lowenstein Sandler / New York, NY
9:15 am
Evolving PFAS Regulations and Prospects for Congressional Action
Perspectives on federal actions on CWA, CERCLA, SDWA, TSCA regulations; update on legal challenges/cases regarding Biden administration standards; state regulatory changes; federal activity and pending legislation; other developments
Sarah Peterman Bell, Esq.
Farella Braun + Martel / San Francisco, CA
Mark S. Heinzelmann, Esq.
Lowenstein Sandler / Roseland, NJ
Kathryn C. Skaggs, Esq.
Keller and Heckman / Washington, DC
10:45 am
Break
11:00 am
State Litigation Updates
New Jersey PFAS Trial and settlement; implications for the scope of state powers to address PFAS on a statewide basis
William J. Jackson, Esq.
Kelley Drye & Warren / Houston, TX
W.L. Gore & Associates polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) case and other non-MDL PFAS litigations
James R. Saywell, Esq.
Jones Day / Cleveland, OH
12:15 pm
Lunch (on your own)
1:30 pm
Removal of State Court Cases to Federal Court under the Federal Officer Removal Statute and Subsequent Transfer to the AFFF MDL
Scope of federal connections now required for federal officer removal following the Supreme Court's opinion in Chevron vs. Plaquemines Parish; scope of activities and connection to AFFF required by the JMPL to transfer federal cases to the AFFF MDL
Matt Conn, Esq.
Friedman Dazzio & Zulanas / Birmingham, AL
Ryan Richman, Esq.
McCarter & English / Newark, NJ
Lana Rowenko, Esq.
Kelley Drye & Warren / Houston, TX
2:45 pm
Break
3:00 pm
MDL No. 2873: Aqueous Film-Forming Foams (AFFF) Products Liability Litigation
MDL status and tracks: Implementation of Case Management Order No. 32; cases in and out; current scope of the MDL; status of personal injury cases and cases on other tracks; what to expect moving forward
Tate J. Kunkle, Esq.
Douglas & London / New York, NY
Carla Pickrel, Esq.
Baron & Budd / Dallas, TX
Daniel L. Ring, Esq.
Jenner & Block / Chicago, IL
4:15 pm
KFI/National Foam Bankruptcy Developments
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James S. Carr, Esq.
Kelley Drye & Warren / New York, NY
The status of the KFI/National Foam bankruptcy and the approach to PFAS liabilities
Christopher A Ward, Esq.
Lowenstein Sandler / Wilmington, DE
5:00 pm
Evaluations and Adjourn
Followed by a cocktail hour sponsored by Kelley Drye & Warren and Lowenstein Sandler
Faculty Bios
Kegan A. Brown,
Program Co-Chair, is a partner at Lowenstein Sandler. He focuses on environmental litigation, environmental regulation, product liability, toxic torts, ESG, and transactional due diligence. This includes extensive experience addressing litigation and regulatory matters involving natural resource damages, contaminated sediments, and emerging chemicals of concern, particularly per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).
John D.S. Gilmour,
Program Co-Chair, co-chairs the Environmental Litigation section at Kelley Drye & Warren. His practice encompasses significant tort and environmental matters, including some of the largest contaminated sites in the country. His environmental focus predominantly has been contaminated groundwater, surface waterways, and industrial and mining sites, including natural resources injured from years of industrial activities; chemical and weapons manufacturing processes; and mining operations.
Sarah Peterman Bell
is a partner at Farella Braun + Martel focusing on environmental and natural resources litigation in state and federal courts. Her practice includes environmental enforcement actions, cost recovery, citizen suits, water quality, and complex toxic tort matters.
James S. Carr
is a member of Kelley Drye's Executive Committee and previously led the firm as Chair from 2015 to 2022, following a decade as Chair of its Bankruptcy and Restructuring practice from 2005 to 2015. He currently serves as lead counsel to the Ad Hoc Committee of Governmental Claimants in the Chapter 11 cases of Kidde-Fenwal which are pending in the Bankruptcy Court in Delaware.
Matt Conn,
a partner at Friedman Dazzio & Zulanas, has extensive experience in multi-party complex environmental litigation and environmental pollution cases. He has litigated some of the largest pollution cases in U.S. history, including the TVA Kingston Coal Ash Spill and the BP Oil Spill. Most recently, he represented the City of Rome, Georgia in a PFAS pollution case.
Mark S. Heinzelmann
is a partner at Lowenstein Sandler. He counsels business clients on environmental regulatory issues, dispute resolution, and federal and state court litigation. As a former Deputy Attorney General, he was involved in a wide array of environmental matters involving such New Jersey statutes as the Spill Act, Water Pollution Control Act, Underground Storage Tank Act, Industrial Site Recovery Act, Brownfield and Contaminated Site Remediation Act, and Site Remediation Reform Act.
William J. Jackson
is co-chair of the National Environmental Law practice group at Kelley Drye & Warren. He is currently serving as counsel for a dozen states and territories, in addition to private-sector clients, in significant remediation and natural resource damages across the country.
Tate J. Kunkle,
Douglas & London, focuses on representing plaintiffs in environmental and mass toxic tort litigation. His recovery for release of environmental toxins includes methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE), perchloroethylene (PERC), trichloroethylene (TCE), 1,4-Dioxane, petroleum, dioxin, and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), including perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA). He also works on groundwater contamination caused by high-volume hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, during the natural gas boom in the Marcellus Shale.
Carla Pickrel
is a Shareholder at Baron & Budd focusing on cases arising from chemical contamination of drinking water supplies and natural resources. Those include methyl tertiary-butyl ether (MTBE), atrazine, perchloroethylene (PCE), polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB), and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS) contamination of drinking water supplies. She currently is involved with cases involving firefighting foams that release toxic perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) whenever used.
Ryan Richman,
a partner at McCarter & English, chairs McCarter's Products Liability, Mass Torts & Consumer Class Actions practice. He represents clients in a wide range of product liability, toxic tort, environmental law claims, natural resource damages (NRD) claims. This includes defending claims involving the newly emerging contaminant PFAS.
Daniel L. Ring
co-chairs Jenner & Block's Mass Torts and Product Liability Practice. He represents Fortune 500 clients across the chemical, manufacturing, and life sciences industries in multidistrict proceedings, coordinated state actions, and other high-exposure disputes. This includes representing a global manufacturer in the nationwide PFAS and AFFF litigation (MDL 2873).
Lana Rowenko
is a partner at Kelley Drye & Warren. Her environmental practice includes representing states and sovereigns in complex environmental litigation involving natural resource damages, recovery under federal environmental statutes, and economic damages arising under state tort law. She also has experience representing companies before state administrative bodies related to environmental permitting.
James R. Saywell
is a partner at Jones Day with substantive experience litigating class actions, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) cases. He has a particular focus on appellate advocacy.
Kathryn C. Skaggs
is a partner at Keller and Heckman. She counsels clients in the regulation of food contact materials, such as plastics, biopolymers, paper, adhesives, coatings, recycled materials, and components of these materials.
Christopher A. War
d is a partner at Lowenstein Sandler. He represents companies facing stress and distress, guiding them through financial restructurings, litigation, business divorces, fiduciary investigations, and asset sales.
Continuing Education Credits
Live credits: This program qualifies for 6.00 NM MCLE, 6.25 CA MCLE, 6.00 DE MCLE, 7.00 NJ MCLE, 7.00 NY MCLE, 6.00 TX MCLE, 6.00 WA MCLE, and 6.00 ABCEP environmental professional credits. Upon request, we will help you apply for CLE credits in other states and other types of credits.
I appreciate LSI's seamless segue from registration, an informative seminar, to end result.
In-Person Location
La Fonda on the Plaza Hotel
100 E. San Francisco Street in Santa Fe, NM 87501
(505) 982-5511
Remote Access to the Live Program
The day before the program, we will email you a link to the materials and one to log into the broadcast. Fill out the Zoom "Registration" form by entering your name and email address. That will log you in.
Register or Purchase a Replay
Tuition
Regular tuition for this program is $995 with a group rate of $895 each for two or more registrants from the same firm. For government employees, we offer a special rate of $745. For Tribal members, public interest NGO's, students, and people in their job for less than a year, our rate is $497.50. All rates include admission to all program sessions and course materials.
If you register for both this conference and the NRD conference on Thursday and Friday, September 24 and 25, you will receive an additional 10 percent discount for both programs. Email registrar@lawseminars.com for details or to register for both programs or the second one.
As a value-added bonus, you will receive access to audio and video recordings of the program at no extra charge.
Make checks payable to Law Seminars International. Financial aid is available to those who qualify. Contact our office for more information.
Replays
Audio and video replay files, with course materials, are available for download or on a flash drive at the same price as live attendance. Files are available for downloading five business days after the program or from the date we receive payment. Flashdrive orders are sent via First Class mail within seven business days after the program or from the date we receive payment. The course materials alone are available for $75.
Cancellation & Substitution
You may substitute another person at any time. We will refund tuition, less a $50 cancellation fee, if we receive your cancellation by 5:00 p.m. on Thursdayday, September 17, 2026. After that time, we will credit your tuition toward attendance at another program or the purchase of an audio or video replay.
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Purchase a Replay
The web link option allows you to stream or download. The flash drive option includes both audio and video files. Both include materials.