Greg Mountain

Partner Greg Mountain, with The West Firm since 2008, presently manages the Firm's corporate and individual clients in an extensive array of legal areas, including general corporate matters, such as corporate formation and governance issues, real estate transactions, mergers and acquisitions, land use, development and zoning matters, regulatory activities, eminent domain proceedings, tax certiorari proceedings and complex commercial litigation. He has significant experience advising and representing clients with respect to real estate development and renewable energy projects. Greg previously acted as corporate counsel for a real estate and hydroelectric generation project developer, and represented a public benefit corporation, as the owner of a substantial flood control and flow augmentation reservoir that benefited several downstream beneficiaries. He has participated in New York State Public Service Commission proceedings, and appeared on behalf of clients before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on project licensing and project license compliance and enforcement matters. He has also appeared before numerous local municipal bodies on various matters, including New York State Environmental Quality Review Act compliance matters, siting issues, zoning matters and the negotiation of payment in lieu of tax agreements. Greg has considerable experience in asset management, structuring and restructuring of material contracts and resolving complex disputes with interrelated issues. He has negotiated asset purchase and sale agreements, power purchase agreements and all types of financing transactions, transactional practices, including the Firm's integrated oil and gas land, title and transactional practice.

In the oil and gas arena, Greg represents operators in support of all of their oil and gas land operations. He negotiates and closes development agreements, joint venture and joint operating agreements, asset purchase and sale agreements for leases and other development rights. Additionally, he renders drilling, acquisition and division order title opinions, works on lease and right of way acquisitions, due diligence reviews, curative measures, the exercise of force majeure rights, drill site and pipeline permitting activities, the calculation of complex division orders, lease foreclosure proceedings and other land related matters. Greg also handles compulsory integration proceedings, including the integration hearing and all related adjudicatory proceedings, as well as land related litigation. He has appeared before several New York State Courts in the defense of oil and gas leases, and responded to requests for information from the New York State Attorney General. Greg also actively participated on behalf of service providers in the environmental review process being conducted by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation for high volume hydraulic fracturing.

Greg's litigation experience includes appearances before the New York State Supreme Court in several Article 78 proceedings associated with government agency interpretation of its governing statutes, Real Property Actions and Proceedings Law Article 15 actions, and several plenary actions related to oil and gas lease issues. Additionally, he has extensive litigation experience with respect to real property disputes, building code violations, and the protection of corporate trade secret and proprietary information. His work also includes litigation before various tribunals, including: the New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Third Department, in a successful challenge to a local municipality's condemnation proceedings; the United State Bankruptcy Court, Northern District of New York, in the successful protection of a right of first refusal in a bankruptcy auction; and the New York State Division of Tax Appeals where he obtained an Administrative Law Judge decision overturning a long standing New York State Department of Tax and Finance policy on franchise taxes.