Mara Cohen Jackel is Senior Counsel in GRSM’s Philadelphia office. Mara’s practice focuses on environmental, health care and complex commercial litigation.  Mara came to GRSM from a boutique practice where she handled a wide variety of matters, primarily complex litigation, real estate transactions with complicated environmental issues, and health care regulatory matters for providers.

Mara has worked in numerous aspects of environmental law, in transactional compliance and litigation matters. She has substantial experience in analyzing environmental issues of real estate transactions and drafting transactional documents to protect clients in both purchases and sales of contaminated properties. She has also worked as part of a defense team in CERCLA matters to coordinate a joint defense and cleanup of contaminated properties.

In her healthcare practice, Mara has successfully represented individual providers in audits by state Medicare and Medicaid program, and against complaints by the state board of professions.

Admissions

• Pennsylvania
• New Jersey
• U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Pennsylvania
• U.S. District Court, New Jersey

Memberships

• Delaware Valley American Environmental Inn of Court
   

Environmental

• Liaison Counsel for 70 transporters in NJ landfill litigation, coordinated settlement through alternative dispute resolution to allocate clean-up costs.
• On behalf of 12 PRPs, worked as a team to negotiate a CERCLA consent agreement with USEPA for cleanup and disposal of oil wastes from former oil recycling facility; supervised the payment of past and future response costs, the hiring of a Project Coordinator and Removal Action Contractor, and coordinated the performance of the cleanup.
• Negotiation of settlement of EPA CERCLA cost recovery actions against corporation that previously operated a dry-cleaning business and worked out settlement under which payment was made only for the sale of the subject property with no out-of-pocket payment from the owners of the corporation who had potential personal liability for the action.
• Obtained a settlement with the New Jersey DEP on behalf of a property owner to allow the owner to build retirement home on property where wetlands had encroached on his property before he had a chance to start construction.
• Represented interests of tenant plastics manufacturer in connection with potential environmental claims by property owner in Bankruptcy Court proceedings, and obtained approval from Bankruptcy Court of settlement between tenant and property owner.

Environmental Compliance

• Negotiated a settlement with EPA on behalf of race car performance shop that resulted in EPA reducing the number of alleged violations by about 80% of its original claims.
• Assisted overseas client with responding to the EPA request for information under FIFRA for the sale of flea and tick products for pets over the internet.

Healthcare

• Obtained agreement from state Medicare administrator that no overpayment was due by adult day care center after initial audit alleged overpayment due to missing prior authorization forms.
• Negotiated an ownership buy-in agreement and new employment agreement (including limitations on a proposed restrictive covenant) for an oral surgeon, with multiple parties which took over the dental practice at which the oral surgeon was working.  
• Negotiated with the PA Board of Medicine and Voluntary Recovery Program (VRP) to permit impaired physician to voluntarily leave medical practice without disciplinary action or continued participation in the VRP program, while continuing participation in private substance abuse recovery program.

Commercial Litigation

• Coordinated a joint defense of our client (a chiropractor) and two physicians, against complex insurance fraud litigation in State Court in New Jersey.
• Obtained settlement for developer of property in complex construction defect case New Jersey, which required the analysis of a dozen expert reports and depositions of those experts