Katherine Kulbok

Katherine counsels clients in complex environmental regulatory, enforcement, and litigation matters. She advises on issues involving air, water, and waste regulation, drawing from her experience as Assistant Attorney General in the Environmental Section of the Virginia Office of the Attorney General, where she represented the Commonwealth’s environmental agencies, primarily the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality. With degrees in both soil and environmental science, she brings a technical perspective and combination of legal and scientific training to matters that sit at the intersection of regulation, policy, and intricate factual records. 

Katherine is informed by experience handling contested permitting, enforcement, and related disputes across Virginia state and federal forums. For example, during her government service, she defended a wind turbine permit-by-rule in Virginia circuit and appellate courts, defended a landfill permit revocation all the way to the Supreme Court of Virginia, and briefed and argued a motion to stay a natural gas pipeline permit in the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. She also handled matters involving consent decrees, waste management, easement claims, and contract disputes, negotiated civil penalties and supplemental environmental projects, and secured court ordered civil penalties of $250,000 in an illegal dumping case. 

Before her time in government, Katherine practiced as a trial attorney. She litigated cases in circuit court and general district court, handled mediations, argued motions, and managed discovery. She also served as a Hanover Circuit Court judicial law clerk for the Honorable J. Overton Harris and the late Honorable Patricia Kelly, where she drafted judicial opinions, conducted legal research, and observed civil proceedings.