Paul Hastings LLP, a leading global law firm, announced today that Kevin Poloncarz has joined the Environmental and Energy practice in San Francisco as partner. Mr. Poloncarz, an air quality and climate change expert, joins from Bingham McCutchen LLP, where he was co-chair of the Climate Change practice.

“In the coming decade, the permitting and compliance issues related to air quality and climate change will become increasingly important,” saidPeter Weiner, chair of the Environmental and Energy practice. “Kevin’s recognized capabilities in air quality and climate change regulatory work will be a clear market advantage at a strategic time and will complement our deep, multi-disciplinary environmental and energy regulatory practices across California and our national environmental and energy law capabilities,” he added.

“We are delighted to welcome Kevin, who marks the third partner addition to our San Francisco office over the past five months,” saidKirby Wilcox, chair of the San Francisco office. “His arrival demonstrates Paul Hastings’ commitment to continuing to grow this office and increase our environmental and energy capabilities,” he added.

An authority on matters involving air quality and climate change, Mr. Poloncarz represents clients, primarily in the energy sector, in environmental compliance and enforcement proceedings and administrative litigation. For both conventional and renewable electric generators, he obtains state and federal permits and defends those permits in resulting appeals, including for the first federal air permit to regulate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from a power plant. Mr. Poloncarz is also actively involved in the development of federal, state and local policies and regulation to address air quality and climate change, including California’s development of a GHG cap-and-trade program under Assembly Bill (AB) 32.

Mr. Poloncarz ‘s hire follows the arrival of Holly House, former co-chair of the antitrust and trade regulation practice group at Bingham McCutchen LLP, in September 2011, and the announcement of antitrust and payments systems partner Thomas Brown’s arrival.

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