Meghan E. Smith

Meghan Smith is co-team leader of the firm's environmental litigation team and a member of the Energy, Environmental & Natural Resources and Construction industry teams. She focuses her practice on environmental/toxic tort, construction and energy litigation and arbitration, as well as regulatory compliance. Meghan's blend of litigation and regulatory-compliance experience, as well as her focus on environmental, construction, and energy-related matters, has positioned her as a go-to lawyer for large public companies and privately held businesses facing complex disputes involving major public works, natural resource development, and infrastructure projects. She understands that such projects are often conducted under tight time frames with clear deliverables, and helps clients identify and execute strategies to bring disputes to swift and creative resolution. Meghan works closely with in-house legal, government relations, and operations teams, as well as an extensive network of technical and subject matter experts and consultants, to develop effective pretrial strategies that can help clients avoid the expense and potential unpredictability of a full trial, whenever possible. Fully prepared to argue her clients' interests in court, she is a proponent of pursuing creative resolutions in the early stages of a dispute, with an eye towards saving time, money, and resources. In her environmental practice, Meghan has extensive experience representing oil and gas, chemical, and manufacturing companies, in regulatory compliance matters (both onshore and offshore), investigations, and litigation involving salt domes, mineral rights, drinking water, industrial accidents, environmental contamination claims, coastal erosion claims, and latent exposure claims. In the construction arena, Meghan has defended engineering, construction, and design firms; general contractors; and subcontractors in a wide range of disputes. These include design-build and construction-defect matters heard in federal and state court and in private arbitration. Meghan has litigated a number of commercial disputes on behalf of energy-industry clients. She also has experience handling complex litigation involving class action defense, workers' compensation claims, indemnification and contract disputes, and insurance coverage claims, and has handled contract negotiations.