Recycling in the 21st Century: Opportunities and Challenges

David Speaker is Managing Counsel, EH&S at Chevron Phillips Chemical Company LLP, where he has worked for 16 years. Prior, he held a position as Staff Attorney at TCEQ. He earned his J.D. from Texas Tech University School of Law and his B.A. from The University of Texas at Austin.

Jonathan Nwagbaraocha is Environment, Health, Safety & Sustainability (EHS&S) Counsel and Compliance Leader for Xerox Corporation. As EHS&S Counsel, he advises on various environmental, health, safety, and sustainability matters throughout operations as well as related areas within supply chain and procurement and enterprise governance on a global basis. As Compliance Leader, he ensures that the organization is in full statutory compliance with all rules and regulations related to all applicable laws in our industry as well as internal policies.

Jonathan holds a B.A. in Environmental Science and Policy from Duke University, an M.P.P from the University of Maryland School of Public Policy, and a J.D. from the University of Maryland School of Law.

Meaghan A. Colligan is a Washington, D.C., environmental attorney and member of Holland & Knight's Public Policy & Regulation Group. She focuses her practice in the areas of environmental, land use, energy and municipal law.

Ms. Colligan advises real estate, manufacturing, transportation and corporate clients regarding a breadth of environmental matters, including providing permitting and remediation advice for real estate and brownfield development projects, litigation in state and federal courts, and regulatory compliance counseling. Ms. Colligan also performs due diligence and evaluates environmental risks in commercial transactions, drafting environmental provisions in a variety of agreements to protect clients' interests across a wide range of industries.

In addition, Ms. Colligan provides comprehensive representation regarding compliance, litigation, permitting and transactions involving the Clean Water Act (CWA), Clean Air Act, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA), Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA), National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and state laws. Ms. Colligan has extensive experience with issues related to emerging contaminants, such as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).

Prior to joining Holland & Knight, Ms. Colligan represented developers, property owners, municipalities, nonprofits, engineers, economists and scientists in New York on issues involving hazardous waste and petroleum spill cost recovery actions, brownfield development, environmental impact review under New York's State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA), water pollution and wetlands, zoning and planning, project siting, alternative energy, municipal law, and real estate transactions. Ms. Colligan participated in entity formation, project development, contract negotiation, obtaining project funding sources, and permitting. Ms. Colligan second-chaired several trials and hearings, and attended public hearings before local municipal land use boards.

During law school, Ms. Colligan drafted comments and argued before an administrative law judge of the New York State Public Service Commission regarding water demand. Ms. Colligan interned for the Hon. Charles Apotheker of the Rockland County Supreme Court of New York.

In addition, she served as a junior diplomat for the Mission of the Republic of the Marshall Islands to the United Nations, assisting with developing policy and financial mechanisms to address climate change concerns. She also interned for the New York City Mayor's Office of Environmental Remediation and the City of Hudson's Corporation Counsel.

Ame Lewis is Senior Legal Counsel at Waste Management in Portland, Oregon. Previously, she was a partner at Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, where she worked for 19 years on cases related to environmental transactions, regulatory compliance, administrative appeals, and corporate M&A. She earned her J.D. from Washington University in St. Louis and her B.A. from the University of Washington.