Attorney Profile

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Matthew Kalman has practiced environmental law in New Jersey for more than two decades. Before that, he spent over eleven years as a hydrogeologist. These two careers are not sequential chapters in a professional biography; rather, they form an integrated foundation for a practice that brings to environmental law a depth of scientific understanding that the field demands but rarely receives.

The Scientific Career

Mr. Kalman earned a Bachelor of Science in Geology from Stockton University in 1992 and pursued post-graduate work in hydrogeology before embarking on a career spanning more than eleven years in the environmental sciences. He began as a hydrogeologist at Dan Raviv Associates, Inc. in Millburn, New Jersey, where he worked on over one hundred contaminated site remediation projects, including soil, sediment, and groundwater investigations at federal Superfund sites and major petrochemical refineries affected by light and dense non-aqueous phase liquids. He prepared remedial investigation reports and remedial action workplans for large-scale soil and groundwater contamination projects, conducted Phase I environmental site assessments, and performed aquifer characterization tests.

He subsequently founded Subsurface Evaluations, Inc. in Margate, New Jersey, serving as Principal Hydrogeologist. In this role, he managed the firm’s compliance projects under CERCLA, RCRA, New Jersey Spill Act, and ISRA; oversaw the design and implementation of remedial action workplans; coordinated field activities at hazardous and non-hazardous waste sites in accordance with NJDEP requirements; and negotiated directly with government oversight agencies on behalf of clients and their counsel.

The significance of that career to his legal practice is immense. Mr. Kalman did not study environmental science in the abstract; he applied it in the field, under regulatory scrutiny, on behalf of clients with real liability exposure, throughout his career encompassing more than eleven years and over one hundred projects.

The Legal Career

Mr. Kalman earned his J.D., with honors, from Washburn University School of Law in 2005 and was admitted to the bars of New Jersey and Pennsylvania that same year. He began his legal career as an associate at McCusker, Anselmi, Rosen & Carvelli, P.C. in Florham Park, New Jersey, where he engaged in complex environmental litigation. There, he handled CERCLA and RCRA litigation, private cost-recovery and contribution actions under the New Jersey Spill Compensation and Control Act, agency-initiated enforcement proceedings, and remediation cost-recovery claims under the New York Navigation Law. Throughout this work, he represented petrochemical companies in regulatory compliance matters, retail service-station acquisitions and divestitures, off-site access disputes, and premises liability claims.

In 2011, Mr. Kalman founded Kalman Law, P.C., where the firm’s practice has focused on matters that acutely demand the synthesis of scientific and legal knowledge, including Spill Act litigation, CERCLA litigation, ISRA and SRRA compliance, environmental insurance coverage proceedings, and contaminated site remediation counseling.

The Present Practice

Today, Mr. Kalman’s practice is concentrated in complex environmental litigation and regulatory proceedings in the Superior Court of New Jersey and the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey. He prosecutes and defends Spill Act cost-recovery and contribution actions. He provides counsel to clients on compliance obligations under ISRA, SRRA, CERCLA, RCRA, the Clean Water Act, TSCA, and EPCRA. He represents policyholders in environmental insurance coverage disputes, including duty-to-defend and indemnification claims, as well as multi-insurer allocation proceedings under the Owens-Illinois framework. Additionally, he advises purchasers, sellers, lenders, and insurers on the environmental aspects of commercial real estate transactions and corporate acquisitions.

Over the course of his career, Mr. Kalman has served for nearly two decades as counsel to a major integrated energy company, coordinating the defense of potentially responsible party groups in private cost-recovery actions and proceedings initiated by federal and state governments. He possesses substantial experience in facilitated negotiation, private arbitration, and mediation of complex environmental liability allocation disputes.