The word “simply” is not in Hill’s vocabulary. She conducts her work to her meticulous standards, a fair and just counsel in all the matters that she takes on. But she never let herself be “simply” a graduate student, “simply” a young woman, “simply” capable of one thing.
Hill chased her ambitions to Boston, then Pittsburgh, then Washington, D.C., and then back to near where she grew up in Philadelphia, where she now Co Chairs Blank Rome’s Energy/Chemical Industry Team and previously chaired the Firm’s Energy, Environment and Mass Torts Practice Group. Today she is described across the internet as a powerhouse who helped reshape the industry, and who continually receives the highest ratings for her work.
Hill’s first foray into environmental work happened following her studies as a graduate student in political science and international relations when she began working at the Gulf Oil Corporation’s Domestic Policy and Planning group at its headquarters in Pittsburgh. She finished a two-year graduate program in one year as her ambitions took hold. As a young employee, Hill had unique opportunities to collaborate directly with senior executives mapping out corporate strategy across the country. The biggest challenges that Gulf Oil was facing centered around environmental and energy development. Hill focused on domestic strategy for many pertinent issues including offshore oil leasing, mineral development, nuclear power, and water protection.
Hill had a strong political science background before working at Gulf Oil, but her work at the company sparked interest in the environment and legal niches. So, she enrolled in law school while at Gulf Oil, and continued working there after she graduated. But after Chevron acquired most of the company, and in a testament to her tenacity and adaptability, she seized the opportunity to make the most of her multifaceted educational background. Hill redirected her career path with a goal of gaining more experience practicing environmental law and joined the U.S. Department of Justice as a Trial Attorney in what is now known as the Environment and Natural Resources Division. Here, she continued solidifying her passion for practicing environmental law for two years, after which she dabbled in lobbying before moving into private practice at Winston Strawn and then on to Blank Rome.
Throughout the early years of her career in Washington, D.C., Hill remembers ELI as a premier organization that was always a fixture of the field. She has been a longtime attendee of our annual Award Dinner and remembers engaging with ELI’s work substantively during a spike in Superfund litigation shortly after becoming an attorney. Blank Rome was already a member firm when Hill joined their practice in 2000, and she was glad to further her association with ELI.
Hill’s practice at Blank Rome is broad in subject and reach, including compliance, permitting, enforcement, transaction, and litigation. While many choose to specialize in certain areas, Hill draws on her time at Gulf Oil for her generalist skills handling cross-cutting issues related to all environmental statutes, undeterred by state lines. She has worked with every EPA regional office and takes clients from multiple states. Hill would not have it any other way. She loves the excitement of never knowing what kind of issue will land on her desk day-to-day and is always up for the challenge of diving into a topic she has never worked on before. Being a jack of all trades is necessary for her transactional work because the conversations often go beyond just one issue. Her greatest joy in her work is assisting companies in compliance with environmental laws and contributing to the development of their business.
If Hill could edit her career path to do anything differently, she would have stayed at DOJ longer to gain more of the experience that it offers. She believes the best part about Justice is the opportunity to do a variety of work and to learn from excellent, intelligent attorneys. However, she is fortunate to have also found excellent, intelligent attorneys outside of DOJ.
Hill credits her former mentor at Winston Strawn, John Proctor, as the strongest influence on her career. His motto was simple: “work hard.” Proctor passed this drive down to Hill, putting a strong emphasis on always expanding her skills and trying to do anything and everything that comes her way. She took this advice to heart and, years later, used it to start the Energy and Chemical Industry Team at Blank Rome in 2009. At the time, the Marcellus Shale Play was expanding, and Hill recognized the unique opportunity to extend the reach of the Firm’s practice. Her informal team grew over the years and now the Firm formally recognizes industry teams like it in addition to their practice groups.
Hill’s personal interests are no less ambitious than her professional ones. She often travels to upstate New York in remote areas of the Adirondacks to snowmobile in deep winter. Though Hill warns of the mental fortitude it takes to manage temperatures well below freezing and the difficulty of operating the heavy machine, she assures that the beauty of the landscape is worth it every time.
No matter what she is doing, Hill is solutions oriented, diving into an issue headfirst to parse through the varied considerations and find the viable outcome. Her hope is that her work can encourage more young people to focus on practicing environmental law.
“Forever Adding More Dimensions: Daring to Dream With Margaret Hill,” edited by ELI Staff, was published in the Summer 2024 issue of ELI Insider: A Newsletter of the Environmental Law Institute Leadership Council.
