Maggie
Macdonald
Principal
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Maggie
Macdonald
Principal
Maggie focuses her practice on environmental litigation, environmental impact review, and land use issues. Since joining the firm in 2011 she has worked on brownfields and (E) designation submissions for sites in New York City, storm water pollution prevention, and landlord-tenant disputes. Maggie’s work also involves enforcement under federal environmental laws including the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, the National Historic Preservation Act, the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act. Maggie has extensive E-discovery experience and has attended conferences on cutting edge technologies in the field of E-Discovery and electronic document review. In addition, Maggie works with recycler and consumer clients dealing with electronics recycling and she is engaged with the developing area of electronics recycling law and regulations in New York State.
Prior to joining the firm, Maggie interned at the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation in Region 2, where she focused on tidal wetlands enforcement. Maggie also participated in the Natural Resources Defense Council clinical program, working on issues relating to water conservation. During law school she was an Executive Editor of the New York University Environmental Law Journal and Chair of the Environmental Law Society and Co-Chair of the Open Meditation and Yoga Society.
Queens West Development Corporation
SPR represents Queens West Development Corporation (QWDC), a subsidiary of New York State's Empire State Development (ESD), in connection with New York's largest mixed use public-private development. During the early planning stages of this major initiative to redevelop a 74-acre area of the Long Island City waterfront, the firm provided environmental and land use counsel to the Urban Development Corporation (now d/b/a ESD) in connection with development of the General Project Plan and the environmental impact statement (EIS) process. It subsequently represented ESD in successfully defeating litigation challenging the adequacy of the EIS. The firm has handled all waterfront permitting issues for the development of parks and the waterfront esplanade, which involved obtaining permits from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and other agencies.
The firm represented QWDC over CERCLA action for response costs and settled. The firm assists in connection with all aspects of remediation of legacy contamination from the area's long and varied industrial uses, including remedies under auspices of either the State's Voluntary Cleanup Program or the Brownfield Cleanup Program, recently representing QWDC in a case over response costs. The litigation recently settled.“Green Buildings: Law and Practices,” with Dan Chorost
For: Practical Law Journal
“EPA proposes new technology rules for boilers and incinerators,” with Daniel Riesel
For: International Law Office
“State and Regional Carbon Reduction Markets in the United States,” with Jeffrey B. Gracer
For: Environmental Claims Journal
NYC Mayor’s Office of Environmental Remediation Proposes New Enforcement Rules
In September 2022, the NYC Mayor’s Office of Environmental Remediation (OER) Sixth Circuit rules in two cases that discharges to groundwater from coal ash ponds do not require a Clean Water Act Permit
New York City Proposes First Stormwater Management Program Regulating Construction Runoff
New York University School of Law, J.D., 2011
Harvard College, B.A., 2008, magna cum laude
New York, 2012
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York
New York State Bar Association member
Bar Association of the City of New York member
Secretary of the International Environmental Law Committee at the City Bar Association
Graduate of the New York City Environmental Law Leadership Institute
Member, New York Road Runners
Attorney spotlight from 2014
