Mr. Dixon is an associate at Saul Ewing LLP, where he represents clients in matters involving  environmental regulation and litigation, including government enforcement proceedings. He  helps companies navigate federal and state environmental agencies in their effort to obtain  permits to build projects that are regulated by the government or require considerations  involving impacts to the environment. Mr. Dixon formerly served as assistant counsel to the  Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), where he counseled several DEP  programs and represented DEP in litigation proceedings. He also served as assistant counsel to  the Honorable Richard P. Mather, Sr., of the Pennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board (EHB).  In that capacity, he counseled the EHB on complex environmental laws and regulations,  assisted the judges in hearings, and drafted opinions and adjudications. Mr. Dixon received his  BA, with high distinction, from the Pennsylvania State University, and his JD from Widener  University Commonwealth School of Law.

Mr. Klapkowski serves as the Deputy Secretary for the Office of Oil and Gas Management with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protections Office of Oil and Gas Management. As the Deputy Secretary, he leads an organization responsible for the oversight of the oil and gas industry in the Commonwealth. The Office of Oil and Gas Management is comprised of two Bureaus – the Bureau of District Oil and Gas Operations, which is responsible for permitting, inspection, compliance and oversight of the conventional oil and gas and unconventional gas industry, and the Bureau of Oil and Gas Planning and Program Management, which is responsible for the Department’s development of policy, regulatory, technical guidance and legislative documents, and data management systems, as well as providing on-going education and outreach to the public and regulated communities. Prior to becoming the Deputy Secretary, Mr. Klapkowski served as the Director of the Bureau of Oil and Gas Planning and Program Management for a decade. Before joining the Office of Oil and Gas Management in 2012, Mr. Klapkowski worked with the Department’s Bureau of Regulatory Counsel for more than 18 years, including service as the counsel to the Oil and Gas Program for four years. Other program clients included Pennsylvania’s Storage Tank program, the Land Recycling Program (brownfields/remediation), the Office of Energy and Technology Deployment, the Division of Hazardous Waste Management, the Division of Nuclear Safety and the Office of Pollution Prevention and Compliance Assistance. He received his J.D. in 1993 from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and graduated Magna Cum Laude from Washington and Jefferson College in 1990. 

Mr. Burnett is a director with Pittsburgh law firm Houston Harbaugh, P.C.; his practice is exclusively devoted to the representation of landowners and royalty owners in oil and gas matters. He is the Chair of the Firm’s Oil and Gas Practice Group and represents landowners and royalty owners in a wide array of oil and gas matters throughout the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He assists landowners and royalty owners in the negotiation of new oil and gas leases as well as modifications to existing leases. He also negotiates surface use agreements and pipeline right-of-way agreements on behalf of landowners. He also advises and counsels clients on complex lease development and expiration issues, including the impact and effect of delay rental and shut-in clauses, as well as the implied covenants to develop and market oil and gas. He also represents landowners and royalty owners in disputes arising out of the calculation of production royalties and the deduction of post-production costs. Mr. Burnett also assists landowners with oil and gas title issues and develops strategies to resolve and cure such title deficiencies. A prolific author and speaker on numerous oil and gas topics, he is a frequent lecturer at Pennsylvania Bar Institute oil and gas programs and currently serves on the Pennsylvania Bar Institute’s “Oil and Gas Law Advisory Committee.” He is also a contributing author of The Law of Oil and Gas in Pennsylvania (1st Ed. 2014), published by the Pennsylvania Bar Institute, and is a member of the Executive Committee of the Pennsylvania Bar Institute’s premier oil and gas law program, the annual “Oil and Gas Law Colloquium.” He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Pennsylvania Oil and Gas Landowner’s Alliance and is an active member of its Legislative Committee. He also served on the “Siting and Routing” Workgroup of Governor Wolf’s “Pipeline Infrastructure Task Force” in 2015. He is also a retired officer from the United States Army. Mr. Burnett received his B.A. in political science, with honors, from John Carroll University and his J.D., cum laude, from Duquesne University School of Law. He is admitted to practice in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, and the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. He is BV® Rated, in the Martindale-Hubbell Peer Review Rating System and named a Who’s Who in Energy, Pittsburgh Business Times, 2011-2017. His memberships include the Pennsylvania Bar Association (Shale Energy Law Committee, Civil Litigation Section and Environmental and Energy Law Section); National Association of Royalty Owners; Pennsylvania Oil and Gas Landowner Alliance (Board of Directors); and the Allegheny County Bar Association. 

Ms. Hurst is Counsel at Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney, P.C., where helps energy companies accomplish their operational and transactional goals. She focuses her practice on commercial and real estate transactions within the coal, oil and gas and renewables industries and counsels clients on environmental and safety compliance. Heather assists industry clients with all stages of acquisition and divestiture of coal, oil and gas, and renewable energy assets and on a variety of land, commercial and title-related matters. She has abstracted and drafted title examination opinions for surface, oil and gas and coal interests, performed mineral title due diligence for oil, gas, coal, and renewable acquisitions, negotiated leases, options and agreements, and drafted a variety of transactional, commercial and operational instruments and agreements. Heather has also represented oil, gas, coal, and renewable owners, operators and companies in real estate closings, transfer, severance and property tax matters, and property, landowner and contract disputes. She has also assisted coal, oil and gas and coal operators in compliance matters related to environmental and safety regulations, including obtaining required permits, conducting compliance audits and analysis representing clients in challenging Mine Safety and Health Administration enforcement proceedings and defending operators in administrative adjudications. Prior to joining Buchanan, Heather represented numerous coal mining operators in Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission proceedings resulting in significant penalty and severity reductions for issued citations and elevated enforcement actions. 

Lauren John is Senior Counsel at Range Resources in Canonsburg. Prior to this position, she was in both private practice and in-house at a private equity-backed natural gas producer. She is a graduate of the Thomas R. Kline School of Law, Duquesne University, J.D., and The Pennsylvania State University, B. A., Advertising and Public Relations and B.A., International Politics. Ms. John is a member of the Pennsylvania Bar Association and the Pittsburgh chapter of the Womens Energy Network.

Gregory J. Krock is a partner in the Pittsburgh office of McGuireWoods LLP.  Greg is an accomplished litigator who represents clients in matters involving the oil and gas, electric utilities, and coal industries.  His experience includes litigating contract disputes, unfair competition claims, toxic tort cases, and other business disputes before state, federal, and appellate courts. Greg is well known in the energy market for his expertise litigating disputes which occur throughout the lifecycle of oil and gas production, from access to mineral rights to supply contracts.  For example, Greg has litigated royalty and lease disputes with landowners (including bad faith pooling cases), toxic tort claims involving hydraulic fracturing, multi–million dollar contract disputes between drilling companies and their contractors, unfair competition claims against natural gas companies, disagreements involving joint operating agreements, and a myriad of disputes involving the construction and operation of natural gas pipelines. Greg served as lead counsel in the highly–publicized Butler v. Powers mater in which the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled in his client’s favor, thereby preserving the state’s so–called “Dunham Rule” and affirming that natural gas rights are separate from mineral rights in the state. The opinion protected thousands of lease deals between landowners and developers in the state’s Marcellus Shale region. Greg graduated magna cum laude from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, where he served on the Law Review and was elected to the Order of the Coif.  He received a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (and was elected Phi Beta Kappa). For more information about Greg, please visit https://www.mcguirewoods.com/people/k/gregory-j-krock.

Mr. Wolford maintains a solo practice, Wolford Law, in Erie. Before going into private practice, he served as Regional Counsel and as an Assistant Counsel for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), Northwest Region. Before joining the DEP, Mr. Wolford served as a prosecutor for the Office of Attorney General (OAG), Environmental Crimes Section and also as a civil litigation attorney for the OAG’s Torts Litigation Section. He was also a special prosecutor of environmental crimes for both the OAG and the United States Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania. Mr. Wolford is currently a member of the Pennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board Rules Committee and the State Water Plan Statewide and Great Lakes Committees. He is also a member of the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s Environmental and Energy Law Section, a Past Chair of the Section Council, the current Chair of the Section’s Programs and Publications Committee, and previously served as a contributing feature editor for the Section’s newsletter. He has lectured for the Pennsylvania Bar Institute, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (National Enforcement Training Institute), the DEP, the Erie County Bar Association, Pennsylvania’s minor judiciary, and various other organizations.  Mr. Wolford received his undergraduate degree from the Pennsylvania State University and his J.D. from the Temple University School of Law, and is a member of the Erie County and Pennsylvania Bar Associations.