Morrison, Smith Appointed Acting Chief Counsels For DEP, DCNR

Richard Morrison, has been named Acting Chief Counsel at the Department of Environmental Protection, moving over from the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources where he served as Chief Counsel.

He replaces Dennis Whitaker who has been Chief Counsel since November 2013 and served previously as Chief Counsel for DCNR from 1990 to May 2012.

Martha Smith, Assistant Counsel for DCNR, has been named Acting Chief Counsel of DCNR.

Richard Morrison was named DCNR’s Chief Counsel in November 2013. Prior to joining DCNR, Mr. Morrison was acting Chief Counsel for the Department of Environmental Protection.

He served as executive deputy chief counsel for the Department of Environmental Protection's Office of Chief Counsel since May 2012. He previously served as assistant director of DEP’s Bureau of Regulatory Counsel.

He joined DEP in January 2005 and served as program counsel for the department’s mining program, for the Bureau of Radiation Protection and the Bureau of Waste Management.

Prior to joining DEP, Mr. Morrison was in private practice in the New Jersey office of Ballard, Spahr, Andrews and Ingersoll where he practiced environmental litigation and franchise law.

From 2001-04, he was an assistant counsel to the Pennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board. He is a 1994 honors graduate of Rutgers School of Law, Camden.

Martha Smith, as Assistant Counsel in DCNR, provided counseling in real property law, including acquisitions for the Bureau of Forestry and Bureau of State Parks, boundary disputes, easements and rights-of-way, rails-to-trails matters, warrants and patents, real estate contracts, navigable rivers, grants, and litigation in both county and appellate courts and the Board of Property.

She has been with the Commonwealth since 1985, working first for the Department of Environmental Resources until the creation of DCNR in 1995.

Prior to joining the Commonwealth, she began her career clerking for The Honorable Carson V. Brown, President Judge of the Clinton County Court of Common Pleas, from 1978 to 1980.

From 1980 to 1985 she worked in private practice at Saxton and Flayhart, a general practice law firm, and as a part-time public defender and a member of the Zoning Hearing Board.

She is a 1975 graduate of the Pennsylvania State University (B.S. Law Enforcement and Corrections) and a 1978 graduate of the Duquesne University School of Law.