Yvonne E. Hennessey (518) 641-0507 yeh@westfirmlaw.com

Yvonne E. Hennessey represents commercial and industrial clients on a wide range of matters involving permitting, compliance, civil and administrative enforcement, government relations, and litigation.   Her clients have issues that are subject to both state and federal law and Yvonne has tried matters in federal courts as well as both New York and Massachusetts state courts. She appears often before state and federal agencies involved with the permitting and licensing of various facilities and projects. 

Although she has assisted a wide variety of clients in a number of different contexts, Yvonne’s practice is primarily in the area of environmental law.  She has assisted corporate and municipal clients, both large and small, in a variety of matters including those related to the New York State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA), the federal Clean Air Act (CAA) and related state regulations, the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA), the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA),  the New York State Coastal Management Program, and other state and federal environmental statutes and regulatory programs that apply to project permitting and siting.  Yvonne’s environmental experience runs the gamut from cement manufacturing to baseball stadiums to gas development projects. 

Yvonne has also represented clients in a broad range of complex litigation matters, including commercial and regulatory disputes. Yvonne’s litigation experience includes every aspect of a sophisticated commercial litigation practice: supervising and engaging in discovery, taking and defending depositions, drafting and arguing motions and appeals, assisting witnesses’ preparation, negotiating complex settlements, and, when necessary, representing clients at trial. 

As the chair of the Firm’s Public Integrity Practice, Yvonne has extensive experience in election, ethics, and lobbying law compliance, including pertinent statutory and regulatory programs at both the state and federal level.

Representative Matters

• Assists natural gas clients with all aspects of well permitting and compulsory integration, including representation at all necessary adminstrative hearings.
• Represents a national natural gas company before executive and legislative branches of New York State government as well as pertinent local municipalities.
• Part of a legal team that successfully represented a national company in connection with the resolution of multi-million dollar claims under CERCLA and New York’s navigation law and common law nuisance doctrine.
• Participated in all aspects of federal and state permitting process for a major industrial facility in New York State.
• Successfully worked with multi-disciplinary consultants to obtain all necessary permits and approvals for the Joseph L. Bruno baseball stadium in Troy, New York.
• Engaged in a thorough analysis of environmental justice issues relating to a proposed siting project in New York which resulted in a detailed report finding no environmental justice concerns.
• Worked with nationally renowned experts in the field of public health as part of a particulate matter air impact analysis for a proposed siting project.
• Drafted a comprehensive coastal zone consistency analysis for a proposed siting project, as well as a detailed permit application to the United States Army Corps of Engineers.
• Successfully sought relief from a bankruptcy court in order to pursue a multi-million dollar judgment despite attempts by the company and its insurers to seek shelter from liability under federal bankruptcy laws.
• Successfully defended county executive in numerous actions brought by county inmates for violation of federal law.
• Obtained multiple injunctions from a federal court against newly adopted New York State regulations.
• Engaged in a thorough audit of a major energy provider’s election and lobbying law compliance and provided similar companies with legal advice as to permissible election and lobbying activities.
• Successfully assisted clients in organizing political action committees for federal, state and local election activities.