Judith Cassel focuses her practice on administrative and commercial law.  She represents companies before governmental agencies as well as assisting companies with their licensing, compliance, and litigation needs.

Judith has spent over 20 years in highly regulated industries such as petroleum, natural gas, electricity, and medical marijuana.  Starting as an executive for Mobil Oil Corporation and later as Vice President of regional petroleum, electricity, and natural gas companies, Judith has negotiated mergers and acquisitions, reorganized operations and refinanced companies.

Beyond managing energy companies, Judith has represented the following types of clients:

• manufacturers,
• utilities,
• retailers,
• solar installations and electric generation suppliers,
• clients with matters before the:
  • Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC),
  • Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (Pa. PUC),
  • Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (Pa. DEP),
  • Department of Health,
  • Insurance Department’s Underground Storage Tank Indemnification Fund (USTIF),
  • and both the Pennsylvania and Maryland taxing authorities.

Judith has assisted clients with:

• applications,
• licensing,
• regulatory compliance,
• large commercial collections,
• entity formation,
• refinancing,
• contract negotiations and drafting,
• sales and leasing transactions,
• grant funding, and
• litigation

In addition, Judith represents companies before the Bureau of Minority and Women Business Opportunities (BMWBO), as well as the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development.

Representative Matters

• Represented a large group of Pennsylvania grower/processors, dispensaries, patients, doctors, and related businesses before the Commonwealth Court in a challenge to the Department of Health’s ad hoc regulation recalling and banning over 670 different product types (Med. Marijuana Access & Patient Safety, Inc. v. Johnson, 317 A.3d 1106, 1109 (Pa. Cmwlth. 2024).
• Represents commercial clients in purchase and sale transactions
• Represents Energy Suppliers before FERC
• Represents State Attorney Generals before FERC
• Represents commercial clients before the U.S. Department of Labor
• Represents Solar Installation facilities in front of the Pa. DEP and Pa. PUC
• Represents Petroleum Distributors in front of USTIF
• Represents electric utility and electric generation suppliers before the Pa. PUC
• Represents commercial clients before the U.S. District Courts
• Negotiates, drafts, implements, and defends contracts, leases, and asset purchase agreements
• Represents companies before Pa. DEP and the Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas
• Represents companies before Pennsylvania and Maryland taxing authorities
• Represents Propane, petroleum, and distillate Distributors in Pennsylvania and New Jersey
• Represents commercial clients before the New Jersey Attorney General
• Represents commercial clients in Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) Leases

Professional Affiliations

• Adjunct Professor, Widener University Commonwealth Law School, Medical Marijuana course, Spring 2020
• National Energy Bar Association
• Pennsylvania Bar Association
• Lancaster Bar Association
• Pennsylvania Petroleum Association
• Oil and Pipelines Committee
• Women’s Council on Energy and the Environment (WCEE)
• Nurse Family Partnership Advisory Board, a Division of University of Pennsylvania’s Lancaster General Hospital
• Council Member, Pennsylvania Bar Association Public Utility Law Section
• Law & Government Institute Advisory Board, Widener University Commonwealth Law School
• Instructor for CME on legal issues

Honors & Distinctions

• Central Penn Business Journal’s Top 40 Under 40
• Pegasus Elite Mobil Oil Corp.
• Honors in Negotiations and Russian Business Law
• NCAA Division I All-American and five-time record holder Track and Field Penn State

Publications and Presentations

• Attorney Cassel to teach Cannabis Law in the Spring 2025 at Dickinson Penn State
• Widener Law School – Business Law Course – guest speaker June 17, 2024
• Money for Municipal Authorities, THE AUTHORITY, June 2024
• Disclaimers and Informed Consent in the Medical Marijuana Industry, THE LEGAL INTELLIGENCER, June 7, 2018.
• Medical Marijuana as One Solution to the Opioid Epidemic in Pennsylvania,THE PENNSYLVANIA LAWYER, Jan/Feb 2018.Pennsylvania Bar Institute, Next Steps for Medical Marijuana in PA: Evolving Issues in a Growing Industry, Oct. 25, 2017.
• Cannabis Expertise, Pennsylvania 4-Hour Certification Course (2017-Present).
• Lancaster Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Conference, The Mother/Baby War on Opioids: Hope and Healing, Oct. 4, 2017.
• Panel Member, WITF, Smart Talk, “Medical Cannabis” (July 26, 2017).
• Lancaster Bar Association, “Planting the Seed: Legalities & Realities of Medical Marijuana in Pennsylvania”, June 13, 2017.
• Presented “Opioid Epidemic Law and Policy” at Widener Law and Government Institute, March 29, 2017.
• Pennsylvania creates ideal market for investors, Marijuana Venture, October 2016, at 144.
• Presented “Regulatory Impacts on Midstream Operations in Pennsylvania” at 2nd Annual U.S. Midstream Oil and Gas Law Conference in Houston, Texas, November 22nd, 2013.
• Oil Express Article, July 2013.

Mentions

• HUD Freed From Pa. Pot Patients’ Suit Over Housing Rebuff (June 17, 2024)