Overview
Land
Our attorneys represent clients in connection with major commercial and mixed use retail developments, as well as residential and industrial properties. Our clients include buyers, sellers, developers and lenders.
Our services include advising about and negotiating purchases and sales, assisting with financing, drafting construction contracts and development agreements, and obtaining the necessary governmental approvals for proposed developments. We have represented the developers of several Texas master planned communities and our teams are equipped to handle the myriad issues facing these developments from inception to maturity. Our expertise ranges from development of urban properties to the unique issues facing owners or purchasers of ranch or agricultural properties throughout the state.
For decades, McGinnis Lochridge attorneys have worked with clients desiring to locate new industrial, manufacturing, service, office and high-tech facilities within Texas. Our attorneys have a thorough knowledge of city, county and state ordinances and regulations that govern and affect the acquisition of land and business startups. We provide comprehensive assistance to new, relocating and expanding businesses and developments, including counseling on financial incentives and opportunities for public-private partnerships.
Environmental
McGinnis Lochridge’s environmental attorneys have significant collective knowledge of environmental issues based on decades of experience representing clients at federal, state, and local levels, including before the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Railroad Commission of Texas, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Our experience encompasses a wide range of matters related to air quality, hazardous and solid waste, water quality, water supply, and wetlands. We are well versed in all aspects of permitting, enforcement defense, environmental audits, and due diligence work, along with related litigation, including contested case hearings and administrative appeals of agency decisions. We provide regulatory counseling under the broad array of environmental statutes and regulations. We utilize our expertise in seeking state and federal legislative and rulemaking solutions to client issues where appropriate, and in monitoring legislative and regulatory developments to determine how proposed legislation and rules may affect our clients’ interests.
Our clients include Fortune 500 companies, as well as smaller companies, trade associations, municipal water utilities, landowners, developers, cooperatives, and individuals. Some representative client industries include petrochemical manufacturing, petroleum refining, oil and gas, water supply, aggregates and other mining, electric generation, water and wastewater utilities, waste management, cement manufacturing, lime manufacturing, ready mix concrete, and real estate.
Water Law
The laws related to water ownership, permitting, use, and conveyance are complex and rapidly evolving. McGinnis Lochridge has decades of experience in all water-related issues from procuring, protecting, securing and transferring or leasing water to obtaining revised permits and complying with regulatory requirements. Our attorneys represent clients before regulatory and administrative agencies, the Texas legislature and the courts.
Special District Laws
Our attorneys have extensive experience representing both public and private water utilities in all issues related to the business of supplying water. Texas water utilities operate under Certificates of Convenience and Necessity (CCNs), which protect their right to serve defined areas. We have experience in obtaining, amending, protecting and transferring CCNs, as well as in water utility regulation, water supply contracts and the acquisition and sale of systems, as well as in financing. We have also represented clients in the formation, organization, regulatory compliance and operation of special purpose districts (including municipal utility districts and special utility districts). We provide a full range of services for utilities from interaction with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to service and extension policies, compliance with open government requirements, election laws, and employment matters.
