Rebecca W. Pritchett

Rebecca is Of Counsel in Maynard Nexsen’s Real Estate and Environmental practice group. She understands the distinct environmental challenges that her clients face and applies her knowledge of federal, state, administrative, and municipal law to achieve creative outcomes that solve their issues while also achieving their business objectives.

Rebecca is an experienced environmental attorney with a deep background in environmental and natural resources law. Her practice focuses on environmental permitting and compliance, enforcement defense, brownfield redevelopment, hazardous waste, CERCLA contribution and cost recovery, water quality, water rights, oil & gas exploration and production, mining, timber, legislative drafting, and lobbying.

She advises developers, property owners, and lenders during the redevelopment of urban and rural brownfield properties and landowners with issues related to wetlands, endangered species, concentrated animal feeding operations, borrow pits, and the construction of logging roads. She has litigated environmental cases in federal and state courts and administrative hearings before state environmental agencies and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Rebecca helps clients deal with all aspects of contaminated property, from environmental permitting and reporting requirements to brownfield redevelopment, financial incentives, and financing options. She also represents clients in CERCLA/Superfund matters, including negotiating administrative orders with EPA, performing multi-party cost allocations, managing cooperating groups of potentially responsible parties (PRPs), and bringing cost recovery actions on behalf of PRP groups.

Rebecca assists commercial, industrial, and municipal utility clients in Clean Water Act and Safe Drinking Water Act issues, including regulatory compliance, internal environmental audits, permitting, citizen suit defense, and administrative enforcement defense. Rebecca also works with estate planning and administration attorneys in planning and administering estates with potentially contaminated property.

Rebecca also represents operators, working interest owners, and mineral owners in matters before the Alabama Oil & Gas Board and in environmental regulatory matters. She previously served as a regulator as a member of the Board.

Rebecca holds a J.D. from the University of Oregon School of Law, where she received a Certificate of Completion in Environmental and Natural Resources Law. She earned her B.S. in Journalism and Public Relations from the University of Southern Mississippi and recently served on their Foundation Board. She credits her public relations background as a critical factor in her ability to create a unique and creative strategy to help solve her clients’ issues and meet their goals.

Community & Professional

• American Bar Association
• Alabama State Bar
• California State Bar (Inactive)
• American Society for Testing and Materials, Committee E50 on Environmental Assessment, Risk Management and Corrective Action
• Birmingham Commercial Real Estate Women (BirminghamCREW)
• Commercial Real Estate Women's Network (CREW National)
• Alabama Permanent Oil & Gas Study Committee
• Women in Manufacturing
• Alabama Center for Real Estate Leadership Council, Lifetime Member
• Manufacture Alabama, Environmental and Legal Committees
• Alabama Water Agencies Working Group, Riparian and Other Legal Issues Focus Area Panel
• National Wildlife Federation, Eastern Vice Chair 
• Alabama Wildlife Federation, Past President 
• Birmingham Women’s Forum, Past President 
• Alabama Forest Land Trust, Board Member 
• The Nature Conservancy, Alabama Chapter, Former Government Relations Advisory Committee Member 
• University of Southern Mississippi Foundation, Former Trustee 
• Fresh Water Land Trust President’s Advisory Board, Former Member 
• Hunting Heritage Foundation, Founding Board Member
• Hunters United Now and Tomorrow (H.U.N.T.) Alabama, Founding Board Member 
• Alabama Department of Conservation & Natural Resources Becoming an Outdoors Woman Program, Outdoor Photography Instructor 
• Alabama Forever Wild Land Trust, Former Trustee 
• Boy Scouts of America, Cub Scout Pack 93, Former Assistant Den Leader 
• Former Alabama DHR Foster Parent 
• Habitat for Humanity, Volunteer
• CREW Network Industrial Council Member
• Alabama State Bar Environmental Section, Past Chair
• American Bar Association Section on Environmental, Energy and Resources Law, Former Council Member

• Represented a manufacturing client in an enforcement action by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regarding environmental reporting requirements, eliminating altogether the administrative order and monetary fine proposed by the EPA.
• Represented an individual client in an enforcement action by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regarding multiple violations of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act, successfully decreasing the fine from $1.2 million to $10,000.
• Represented a manufacturing client in a Clean Water Act permit negotiation with a state environmental agency, successfully doubling the client’s permitted discharges and allowing them to significantly increase production.
• Defended a real estate developer in a Clean Water Act citizen suit that threatened to derail a $60+ million construction project. Defeated the plaintiff’s request for preliminary injunctive relief and won the case on summary judgment, allowing the project to proceed as planned.
• Convinced a sophisticated lender to finance the ground lease of a manufacturing facility listed on the National Priorities List (a Superfund site) where the responsible party and EPA had not yet settled on a remedy, and the estimated cost of cleanup ranged from $6 million to over $400 million

Recognition

• Chambers USA - Recognized Practitioner in Environment: Alabama
• Martindale-Hubbell® AV® Peer Review Rated attorney (2019-2023) 
• Martindale-Hubbell® AV® Rated attorney, Judicial Edition 
• Birmingham Business Journal’s Top 40 Under 40 
• Birmingham Business Alliance Entrepreneur of the Year 
• Birmingham Best Lawyers Environmental Lawyer of the Year 
• AVVO Top-Rated Lawyer 
• Best Lawyers® - Environmental Law, Litigation - Environmental 
• Alabama Super Lawyers®, Environmental Category 
• U.S. News & World Report’s Best Law Firms in Alabama Acknowledgements 
• Birmingham Magazine’s Best Lawyers, Environmental and Land Use Categories 
• B Metro Magazine’s Best Lawyers, Environmental Category 
• B Metro Magazine’s Top Women Attorneys 
• Top Attorneys in The Mid-South 
• Business Alabama’s Top Attorneys in Alabama 
• Corporate Counsel’s Top Energy, Environmental & Natural Resources Lawyers 
• Birmingham Business Journal’s Best Attorneys in the Birmingham Area, Environmental Category 
• Birmingham Business Journal’s Best of the Bar, Environmental Category