The Pennsylvania Bar Association this week presented its 2008 Award for Distinguished Service to the Profession to former DEP Assistant Chief Counsel Dennis Strain.

Strain was honored for his 33 years of service to the commonwealth at the association's annual Environmental Law Forum held April 9-10 in Harrisburg.

Prior to his retirement earlier this year, Strain served as DEP’s Assistant Chief Counsel and Litigation Coordinator in the Office of the Chief Counsel. He joined DEP in 1974 as an assistant counsel in the department's Southwest Regional Office in Pittsburgh.

In addition to representing the department's mining, waste management and water quality programs, he also handled many enforcement matters, litigating increasingly complex and important cases, achieving success before the Pennsylvania Supreme and federal courts.

In 1986, he was transferred to DEP’s central office in Harrisburg to take on the role of Litigation Coordinator, and in 2004, he was appointed as an Assistant Chief Counsel. During this time, he was one of the department’s representatives on the Environmental Hearing Board Rules Committee, and he developed great expertise in e-commerce and electronic discovery issues, making him one of DEP's primary counselors in those matters, as well as with questions relating to Right to Know Law.

4/11/2008