Bar & Court Admissions

  • Pennsylvania

    New Jersey

    New York

    U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit

    U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey

    U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania

    U.S. Supreme Court

Education

Harvard Law School, J.D., cum laude, 1985

University of Pennsylvania, B.A., summa cum laude, 1982

  • Phi Beta Kappa

Transition Personnel Committee for Governor-Elect Josh Shapiro's Transition Team, 2022-2023

SEPTA

  • Board Member (2014-present)

Jewish National Fund

  • Executive Committee Housing Fund

Litigation Counsel of America, Fellow

Former roles:

  • University of Pennsylvania School of Law, Thomas A. O’Boyle adjunct professor
  • Vermont Law School, Summer Lecturer
  • Temple University Master of Law program, Beijing, China - Lecturer-in-Law
  • Lower Merion Township Zoning Board and Chair
  • MGKF Managing Partner (2007-2014)
  • Lower Merion Township Planning Commission, Chairman
  • Disciplinary Board of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, Hearing officer
  • Environmental Law Network, President
  • Delaware Valley Environmental Inn of Court
  • Natural Lands Trust Board
  • Lower Merion Conservancy, Chair and Board of Directors
  • Philadelphia Academies, Inc., Chair and Board of Directors
  • The Friends of Andrew J. Fox Melanoma Foundation at the Abramson Cancer Center, Founder
Profile
Professional Highlights
Insights
News & Events

“Highly articulate, intelligent, practical and knowledgeable—he is a well-rounded lawyer and aggressive litigator.”
- John Skoutelas, VP, Legal Affairs Northeast United States, Waste Management

Partner Robb Fox has a diverse practice involving compliance counseling, litigation and transactional work for clients in the waste, chemical manufacturing and development industries and on behalf of cities and municipalities.  He is known nationally for his work under the federal Superfund law including handling many high-profile Superfund matters such as the Keystone Landfill matter, featured on 60 Minutes, and the Gowanus Canal and Newtown Creek sites.  He regularly litigates Superfund issues of first impression at the trial and appellate levels in multiple jurisdictions. 

Robb’s litigation experience extends to superfund cost recovery, class action and toxic tort defense, trials and appeals before federal and state courts and administrative tribunals.  He also represents local, regional and national clients in the environmental aspects of business transactions, ranging from redeveloping brownfields (he assisted in the drafting of the 2002 brownfields amendment to the federal Superfund law) to managing liabilities in the environmental acquisition and divestiture of multinational companies.

Robb was the firm's Managing Partner from 2007-2014. He was listed as "Philadelphia Area Best Lawyers Environmental Lawyer of the Year" (environmental law), 2019 and 2010; and "Philadelphia Area Best Lawyers Environmental Lawyer of the Year" (environmental litigation), 2012*.

Robb’s personal interests are as diverse as his law practice.  He is a competitive tennis player, a devoted Phillies fan and loves cooking.  In 2012 he was named Top Chef in a competition among Philadelphia lawyers.  He is married to his high school sweetheart and has two daughters and three grandchildren.


*See Professional Highlights Tab for listing and rating information.

Examples of Robb’s representative compliance counseling, litigation and transactional matters include the following:

Compliance Counseling

  • Compliance, permitting and site remediation issues for a national solid waste corporation, a national hazardous waste recycler, several multi-national chemical manufacturers, petroleum companies and convenience store operators;  
  • drafting comments for companies and trade associations on proposed federal and state environmental rulemakings;
  • liability, remedy selection, allocation, and natural resource damage issues for potentially responsible parties at Superfund and RCRA corrective action sites in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York, and in California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, Ohio, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Texas, Vermont and West Virginia; and
  • drafting and assisting in the passage of the 2002 brownfields amendment to the federal Superfund law on behalf of a national trade association.

Litigation

  • Superfund litigation involving successor liability, unilateral orders, remedy selection, consent decree enforcement, allocation, and private party liability issues;
  • class action defense relating to property damage and annoyance and inconvenience;
  • defense of toxic tort matters involving personal injury and property damage claims;
  • all aspects of administrative appeals before the Pennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board and United States Environmental Appeals Board, including permit appeals, enforcement matters, and challenges to agency regulations and actions; and
  • all aspects of appellate practice, including appearing before all Pennsylvania appellate courts, the United States Supreme Court, and the First, Second and Third Circuit Courts of Appeal.

Transactional

  • brownfield redevelopment and funding for national and regional industrial, commercial, and residential developers and investment companies; and
  • acquisition and divestiture of national and multi-national corporations or divisions of national and multi-national corporations, including agreement drafting and environmental due diligence.

Robb has been an adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School for 25 years and taught environmental law to Chinese lawyers and judges for Temple University’s Law School in Beijing, China.  He is also a frequent lecturer at environmental conferences, including the annual ALI/ABA environmental and environmental litigation conference in Washington, DC, and has written on a variety of topics, including Superfund cost recovery and contribution, Superfund allocation, storage tank litigation, environmental due diligence, municipal waste regulations, brownfields development, class action and toxic tort defense and ethical issues.

Honors & Awards

Press Releases

Seminars & Speaking Engagements

"PFAS at Contaminated Sites: Evolving Technical, Regulatory and Legal Priorities," a webinar presented by MGKF and Integral Consulting, October 17, 2023

"CERCLA: Recent Litigation and Regulatory Developments," presented at the ALI-CLE Environmental Law 2023, Arlington, VA, February 16, 2023

"Briefings on the Environmental Initiatives of the Biden Administration” a webinar presented by MGKF, March 24, 2021

"Litigating Complex Issues Under the Scrutiny of Public Opinion - How to Win Each Battle and the War," presented at the Delaware Valley Chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel's In-House Counsel Litigation Institute, virtual webinar, March 11, 2021

"CERCLA: Recent Litigation and Regulatory Developments," presented at the ALI-CLE Environmental Law 2021, virtual webinar, February 24, 2021

"The Pennsylvania Environmental Rights Amendment: Are You Ready for a New ERA?" presented by MGKF, Bala Cynwyd, PA, February 27, 2018

"Green & the New Regime: The Economic & Environmental Impacts of a Trump Administration" (moderator) presented by MGKF, Bala Cynwyd, PA, February 7, 2017

"Sediment and PRP Summit" presented by EHS Support, September 22, 2016

“Trial of an Alternate Energy Siting Case,” presented at the American Law Institute-American Bar Association course on Environmental Litigation in Washington, DC., June 14, 2013

"Minimizing Successor Liability Risk," presented by the Delaware Valley Chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel's In-House Counsel Conference in Philadelphia, PA, April 23, 2013

2012 Environmental Law Forum presented by the Pennsylvania Bar Institute in Harrisburg, PA, March 28, 2012

"CERCA, RCRA & Brownfields Trends," presented by the American Law Institute-American Bar Association (ALI-ABA) in Washington, DC, February 1-2, 2012

"Creating and Maintaining an Extraordinary Managing Partner/Administrator Team," presented by the Association of Legal Administrator's  Annual Conference in Orlando, FL, May 24, 2011

"Environment & Energy Funding in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act," presented by MGKF in Philadelphia, PA, March 17, 2009

Media Coverage