J Patrick Berry

Pat Berry has over thirty years of private practice experience in the environmental area. He is primarily responsible for coordinating the environmental practice of Baker Botts in connection with a variety of transactional matters, such as asset sales, corporate acquisitions, restructurings, financings, related SEC disclosures, and environmental due diligence investigations. He has experience with every major federal environmental statute and has worked on multiple projects involving the separation of existing plants into two or more facilities. Mr. Berry has helped clients obtain the necessary environmental permits for a variety of energy projects, ranging from major onshore and offshore exploration and production projects to onshore and offshore pipeline projects, including permits for natural gas processing and storage facilities. In 1997, he coordinated the extensive federal and state permitting of a natural gas pipeline project that would have delivered natural gas reserves from offshore Nova Scotia to New England. Mr. Berry has also represented clients in a wide range of environmental enforcement matters. He is currently representing a major chemical company in a multimedia enforcement matter involving the federal Environmental Protection Agency and the National Enforcement Investigations Center. Finally, Mr. Berry has extensive legislative experience, having served as counsel to the United States Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources from 1975 to 1977, when both the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act were first reauthorized and when the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act was enacted. One of his assignments during his tenure on the Hill was monitoring issues associated with the completion of the Trans-Alaska Oil Pipeline and issues raised during the implementation of the Alaskan Native Claims Settlement Act. Since joining Baker Botts in 1977, he has represented clients in a number of legislative matters, ranging from the National Energy Act of 1978 and the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 and its subsequent amendments, to the Clean Air Act of 1990.