Abbi L. Cohen is a partner in Dechert LLP’s Philadelphia office. She focuses her practice on evaluating environmental liabilities associated with corporate, real estate, and financing transactions—including with respect to renewable energy—and providing both state and federal permitting and regulatory compliance advice. She has assisted clients in siting and permitting industrial facilities, including resource recovery and cogeneration facilities, as well as power plants. Abbi has been consistently recognized by Chambers USA and other leading publications as a leading environmental lawyer. She most recently was ranked in the 2011 edition of Chambers, where she was identified as a “’great” transactional attorney with an international practice. Abbi also is a member of the advisory board of BNA’s Environmental Due Diligence Guide.


Hope S. Freiwald is a trial lawyer at Dechert LLP, whose practice includes a broad range of product liability, consumer class action and commercial cases. Hope has served as trial counsel and has helped lead defense strategies for companies including AstraZeneca, Merck/Schering-Plough, Bausch & Lomb, and GSK.

Freiwald regularly counsels clients facing emerging litigation risks and trying to assess risk as part of a potential business strategy. She has worked on pre-litigation dispute resolution, including resolution of putative mass tort claims in Europe and has advised clients appearing before government review panels with regard to their prescription medications. She is a frequent lecturer and has appeared on TV discussing product liability and consumer-related litigation issues. She also has served as a media spokesperson for clients faced with high-stakes mass tort litigation. Hope was highlighted as a "litigation star" in the area of products liability in the 2011 edition of Benchmark Litigation. In the 2011 edition of The Legal 500 (U.S.), Hope was recommended for her work in the area of crisis management for medical devices in product liability and mass tort defense litigation. She also has been noted for her work in Best Lawyers in America since 2007. Most recently, she was named by the National Diversity Council as among the “Most Powerful and Influential Women in Pennsylvania.”


John M. Ix is a counsel in Dechert LLP’s Philadelphia office. He advises clients on environmental regulatory compliance issues, supports litigated environmental disputes, and negotiates environmental terms in business transactions. Prior to law school, John worked as a geologist for an environmental consulting firm. That experience, coupled with his undergraduate and graduate science degrees, provides him with a distinctive understanding of the technical issues underlying environmental compliance, litigation, and transactional matters. For the past three consecutive years, John has been designated as one of the top lawyers in Pennsylvania for environmental law by Chambers USA.


Wim Vandenberghe is a counsel in the Brussels office of Dechert LLP, specializing in energy regulatory law (TPA, unbundling, tariffs, investment structuring, licenses, security of supply, etc). He also has experience in downstream fossil fuels and renewable energy contracts and projects as well as climate change and emissions trading matters. Typical clients include grid operators, investors, power producers and large energy consumers. In recent years he has counseled clients on the EU energy liberalization packages. His work also involves advising on the application of competition and state aid law to the energy industry. He has represented clients before the European Commission, European Court of Justice, and national energy regulators. He regularly publishes and lectures on energy topics. Wim graduated from the K.U.Leuven (Belgium), Edinburgh University (UK) and the Centre for Energy, Petroleum and Mineral Law and Policy in Dundee (UK).