Biography
Adam leverages his extensive background and experience in environmental law to represent clients in highly complex regulatory and litigation matters, including mass tort defense.
He frequently advises clients on environmental compliance and transactional matters and in site remediation, permit appeals, citizen suits, air quality, water quality and solid waste management matters. In addition, he counsels clients on environmental risk communication and environmental justice, as well as environmental, ESG and energy policy issues. Adam is also experienced in the negotiation of community benefit agreements and the environmental terms of commercial and development agreements. He has significant experience in the area of emerging contaminants, particularly per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).
Adam’s in-depth experience in policy work includes evaluation of clean air, water quality and solid waste regulations; environmental justice statutes, regulations and policies; and vapor intrusion guidance.
He currently serves on Fox's Sustainability Committee and is a regular contributor to the firm's PFAS and Emerging Contaminants blog.
Before Fox Rothschild
Prior to joining the firm, Adam spent four years applying his environmental law experience in the public interest sector, including as interim executive director for a nonprofit environmental organization dedicated to the improvement of environmental and economic conditions in the city of Chester, Pennsylvania. Between 2008 and 2012, Adam worked as a staff attorney for a Philadelphia-area public interest organization, where he served as Director of its Public Health and Environmental Justice Law Project. Adam spent the first 13 years of his career in private practice in and around Philadelphia, with environmental counseling and litigation experience at a suburban Philadelphia environmental law boutique and general commercial litigation experience at two major firms.
From 2008 to 2011, Adam was an adjunct professor at Drexel University’s Law School, where he taught lawyering skills and environmental law concepts to second- and third-year law students in a clinical practice setting.
During law school, Adam served as executive editor of the University of Pennsylvania Law Review and received the Edwin Keedy Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Law Review.
Beyond Fox Rothschild
In 2011, Adam was appointed to serve on the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection’s Environmental Justice Advisory Board, and in 2022 he was elected by his colleagues to a second term as Chair, a position he has held since 2018. Adam also serves on the Pennsylvania Bar Association Environmental and Energy Law Section’s Council, the PBA’s sustainability program for legal organizations, where he played a leading role in updating the guidelines for the PLUS Program. In 2021, he was appointed to the Lower Merion Township Environmental Advisory Council, which advises the Township Board of Commissioners on environmental and sustainability issues.
Adam has organized and developed multiple CLE programs, and he has been a presenter on environmental issues at events throughout the country. Adam also serves on the Board of Directors of the Pennsylvania Resources Council.
Bar Admissions
- Pennsylvania
Court Admissions
- U.S. Court of Appeals, Third Circuit
- U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Pennsylvania
Education
- University of Pennsylvania Law School (J.D., 1995)
- University of Pennsylvania Wharton School (B.S., cum laude, 1992)
Board of Directors
- Pennsylvania Resources Council, Inc. (PRC)
Honors & Awards
- Chester Environmental Partnership Outstanding Service Award (2012)
- Main Line Today Top Lawyers in Environmental Law (2015, 2026)
Memberships & Appointments
- Delaware Valley Environmental American Inn of Court
- Pennsylvania Environmental Justice Advisory Board (2011-present)
- Chair (2018-present)
- Lower Merion Township Environmental Advisory Council
