“Identifying cost-effective regulatory outcomes for clients’ complex projects requires experience, creativity and sensitivity to the clients’ needs.”

A cofounder of the firm and its first managing partner, Bruce has over thirty years of experience in the practice of environmental law.  He is the partner in charge of the firm's New Jersey practice and also continues to counsel Pennsylvania clients.   

Bruce’s practice includes all of the key environmental regulatory programs, however he gains the most satisfaction from assisting his industrial and real estate clients to solve complex regulatory issues under the web of state and federal water, solid waste and site remediation laws.  His clients include one of the world’s largest waste management companies, the developer of one of the largest fully LEED-certified mixed-use brownfield redevelopment projects in New Jersey and numerous industrial companies addressing legacy site cleanups.  Clients also look to Bruce for creative approaches to due diligence and liability management in a wide variety of real estate and corporate transactions and a new area of interest is the firm’s sustainability practice.  Bruce has testified on major revisions to the New Jersey site remediation laws and served on former New Jersey Governor Christie’s environmental transition team, which made recommendations that resulted in significant reforms to a variety of state environmental programs. 

Outside the office, Bruce is a proud husband and father to two grown children. He also includes grandfather in his list of accomplishments. He enjoys an occasional round of weekend golf and recreational biking, reads voraciously, listens to indie, country and classic rock music and is a long-time subscriber to the Philadelphia Orchestra.  

Bruce has represented industrial, real estate, and municipal clients in the following types of matters:

• Brownfields Redevelopment - working with commercial and residential real estate clients in developing and implementing creative brownfields reuse strategies under state voluntary cleanup programs in New Jersey and Pennsylvania and the federal land revitalization initiative and helping clients secure state and federal financial assistance for such projects;
• Waste Management and Recycling - advising waste management industry clients concerning landfill and transfer station siting, permitting, operations compliance, landfill closure and redevelopment opportunities, and recycling activities;
• Site Remediation - developing cleanup compliance strategies for industrial clients for operating facilities, plant closures and off-site waste disposal sites to address historic contamination under state (New Jersey and Pennsylvania) and federal (Superfund, RCRA and TSCA-PCB) cleanup programs;
• New Jersey LSRP Program - advising multiple New Jersey clients regarding the use of licensed site remediation  professionals to oversee the cleanup of contaminated sites under New Jersey’s Site Remediation Reform Act;
• Natural Resource Damages - assisting clients to cost-effectively resolve natural resource damages claims under New Jersey’s natural resource damage initiative for groundwater, wetlands, and other affected resources utilizing both monetary and resource-to-resource settlements;
• Sustainability - counseling clients concerning legal requirements regarding renewable energy, energy conservation, green building and other sustainability initiatives, including federal and state financial assistance and tax incentives;
• Real Estate Development - obtaining regulatory approvals for real estate development and industrial projects under applicable New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and federal environmental programs, including coastal and waterfront development permits, wetlands permits, National Pollution Discharge Elimination System permits, and water supply permits;
• Transactions - advising buyers, sellers, and financial institutions concerning environmental issues affecting the purchase, sale, and financing of real estate or businesses and negotiating and documenting the parties’ understandings in purchase agreements, loan documents, and escrow and indemnity agreements;
• Leasing - negotiating and documenting lease terms for lessors and lessees to allocate responsibility for environmental conditions arising prior to and during the leasehold;
• Insurance - helping clients obtain and negotiate the terms of environmental insurance policies including pollution legal liability and cost-cap insurance;
• ISRA - counseling parties to New Jersey transactions that trigger the requirements of New Jersey’s Industrial Site Recovery Act (ISRA), developing creative strategies to facilitate closing and compliance with ISRA  and assisting in the implementation of cleanups where necessary;
• Regulatory Compliance - counseling clients on regulatory compliance, including environmental auditing and compliance management system development, addressing spill reporting requirements and recordkeeping obligations, and responding to agency information requests.
• Enforcement - negotiating consent orders and consent decrees to resolve enforcement cases and address regulatory compliance and site remediation issues under federal and state laws.

Bruce has lectured and written extensively on various environmental law subjects in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.  He has also served as an adjunct Lecturer-in-Law at Temple University Law School and authored the chapter on solid waste management in the Pennsylvania Bar Institute's treatise, Pennsylvania Environmental Law and Practice.

Before founding Manko, Gold, Katcher and Fox LLP, Bruce was a founder and partner in the Environmental Law Department of Wolf Block. Between college and law school, he worked for the Office of International Affairs of the U.S. Treasury Department for two years.

• Chambers USA - America’s Leading Lawyers for Business  (environmental law) 2005, 2007-2009. The Chambers list is issued by Chambers and Partners. Click here to view the selection methodology.
• Best Lawyers® in America listings (environmental law), since 1995. The Best Lawyers list is issued by Woodward/White Inc. Click here to view the selection methodology.
• Pennsylvania’s and New Jersey’s Super Lawyers listings (environmental law), since 2005 and 2006, respectively. The Super Lawyers list is issued by Thomson Reuters.  Click here to view the selection methodology.
• AV Preeminent Peer Review Rated through Martindale Hubbell®. Click here to view the selection methodology. 
• No aspect of this advertisement has been approved by the Supreme Court of New Jersey or any other jurisdiction.

MGKF Webinar "New Jersey Remedial Investigations:  New Extended Deadline Explained," February 10, 2014

"Sustainability Is Good Business," sponsored by MGKF for the Chamber of Commerce Southern New Jersey in Voorhees, NJ, October 5, 2012

"Stormwater Regulations & Enforcement in the Real Estate Development Industry:  The D.R. Horn Settlement," presented for the Builders League of South Jersey Business Management Series, September 22, 2011

"Taking the Mystery Out of Opting-In to NJDEP's LSRP Program," sponsored by MGKF and Environ in Edison, NJ, February 25, 2011

"Taking the Mystery Out of Opting-In to NJDEP's LSRP Program," sponsored by MGKF and Environ in Cherry Hill, NJ, February 15, 2011

"Business Opportunities for Companies that Focus on Renewable Energy and Infrastructure," sponsored by Select Greater Philadelphia, May 10, 2010

"Untangling the Web of LSRP Regulations," sponsored by MGKF in Cherry Hill, NJ, December 15, 2009

New Jersey's New Site Remediation Reform Act," sponsored by the Builders League of South Jersey in Cherry Hill, NJ, August 5, 2009

"Green Power: Harnessing the Potential of Alternate Energy Sources," as part of "South Jersey: The People, Power & Politics," presented by the Chamber of Commerce Southern New Jersey in Voorhees, NJ, February 6, 2009