Ryan Kemper, Thompson Coburn environmental practice featured in St. Louis Lawyer

Environmental attorney Ryan Kemper is featured on the cover of St. Louis Lawyer’s September issue. The magazine is a monthly publication of the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis.

Kemper is the chair of BAMSL’s Environmental and Conservation Law Committee, a post previously held by partner Paul Sonderegger.

As detailed in the cover story, Kemper grew up in Southern Illinois as the son of a wildlife biologist for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. A post-college staff position in the Illinois State Senate, including work for the Senate’s Environment and Energy Committee, cemented Kemper’s interest in environmental law.

Now an environmental attorney at Thompson Coburn for more than eight years, Kemper’s practice focuses on matters arising under the major federal environmental laws such as the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act, sustainability and climate change issues, Superfund litigation, and state and federal regulatory matters.

“When you're an environmental lawyer, anything that has an environmental issue in it may end up on your desk — whether it’s in the context of a contract dispute or a bankruptcy,” Kemper told St. Louis Lawyer.

The Environmental and Conservation Law Committee’s first featured event is an Oct. 15 seminar on a hot topic in environmental law: hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking.” The session, “The Latest on Hydraulic Fracturing Regulation in Illinois and Beyond,” will be held at the headquarters of the St. Louis Regional Chamber, and will discuss a new piece of legislation in Illinois that is now regulating fracking in the state.