Mr. Kenneth Shelley Kamlet | Special Counsel

Kenneth S. Kamlet is a member of the Hinman, Howard & Kattell General Business Representation and Environmental Law practice groups, where he concentrates on helping clients avoid and resolve environmental issues, beneficially reuse contaminated land, secure regulatory and land-use approvals for new development projects, take advantage of economic development incentives, and address regulatory requirements that apply to exploration and development of subsurface gas and mineral deposits. He counsels clients on a wide range of environmental; regulatory and land-use and zoning, and economic development issues. He also helps clients who are the focus of environmental enforcement actions.

Ken keeps informed of cutting-edge economic development tools to benefit developers and municipalities, including such things as Tax Increment Financing (TIF), which was recently revitalized in New York State, Land Banking, and the new START-UP NY tax exemption program.
Ken has also negotiated Environmental Indemnification Agreements and Pollution Legal Liability (PLL) insurance coverage, and devised strategies to protect buyers and sellers from environmental liability in complex real estate transactions.

Ken played a central role in national environmental public policy decision-making during his 12½-year tenure as counsel and director of legal affairs (and also director of the pollution and toxic substances division) of the National Wildlife Federation, the country’s largest non-governmental environmental action and advocacy organization. During this period, the program Ken ran was rated second out of 41 in terms of those found to be “most influential, most effective, most respected and credible in helping establish meaningful environmental management programs at the federal level.” Ken was also a partner in the environmental practice groups of two Washington, D.C.-area law firms, and a principal in the environment, health and safety practice of a global management consulting firm.

Ken has published numerous articles in professional and popular publications on a wide variety of environmental and land-use issues; has been a presenter at multiple professional forums and has participated in environmental, regulatory, and land use litigation in state court, U.S. District Court, the U.S. Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court. He also writes a “legal blog”, Shale Gas Perspectives, on deep shale hydraulic fracturing of natural gas, http://blog.hhk.com/?cat=15, and manages and curates a LinkedIn website on entrepreneurship and the START-UP NY program, http://tinyURL.com/StartUpNY.

Ken has received an “AV” (Preeminent) peer review rating in both legal ability and ethical standards by Martindale-Hubbell and “Top Attorney” rating (of “10/Superb”) by Avvo.com. He is an active member of the Greater Binghamton Chamber of Commerce where he serves as the co-chair of the Consolidation Committee and is a Member of the Government Affairs, Legislative, Unshackle Upstate, and Recognition & Awards committees, as well as the Small Business Council. He was twice the recipient of the Chamber’s Small Business Advocate Award. He was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, the nation’s premier academic honor society, in 1966.

Ken engages in a wide range of community activities. He is former Chair of The Greater Binghamton Coalition’s Brownfield Committee, is a member of the NYS Bar Environmental Law Section’s Brownfields Task Force, the Southern Tier Mentor Group, the “Binghamton & Southern Tier NY Business Community,” the Broome County Land Bank’s Community Advisory Panel and SUNDY BEST [Business and Education Cooperative of the Southern Tier]. He also sits on the Board of Directors for the Goodwill Theatre, and for the Greater Binghamton Global Business Alliance.

He remains active in the public policy sector as a Member of the Unshackle Upstate Brownfield Advisory Team; former Board Member and co-Chair of the Policy & Legislative Committee, NYS Chapter, National Brownfield Association; Member, Broome County Brandywine Corridor Brownfield Opportunity Area Steering Committee; former Member, Binghamton Mayoral Commission on Housing & Home Ownership; former Member, Broome County’s Environmental Management Council (EMC) and founding chair of the EMC’s Brownfields Committee. Ken was appointed by the Broome County Executive as a member of the Broome County Energy Initiatives Panel.