Rich Conway guides clients in sales and purchases of real estate, assets and shares, and advises them on how they can comply with their environmental obligations in their business or their projects. He also works with his firm’s other lawyers with similar practices or who are handling lawsuits on environmental matters, such as cost recovery, insurance claims, NRD and toxic tort. Thoughtful and pragmatic, Conway has emerged in the last decade as one of New Jersey environmental law’s leading - and most effective - practitioners. The 56-year-old New Jersey native combines many of the professional skills - a strong grasp of the law, excellent writing skills and an observant and inquisitive nature - with a warm and engaging personality that attract a wide range of clients - “from the widow who wants to sell a property to a Fortune 100 company needing assistance in a major acquisition” - for many years.

Like many of his peers in environmental law, Conway hardly anticipated moving into the specialty. In fact, out of college he managed a bank branch, and only later decided to attend Rutgers law school. That suited the intellectually curious Conway: “I’m one of those rare lawyers who actually liked law school,” he jokes today. While clerking at a prominent personal-injury firm in Newark, he realized he wanted to focus on being a counselor, advisor and facilitator - rather than a litigator. “I was more interested in changing the future than arguing about the past,” he says. Thus, Conway found himself helping clients complete venture deals and land transactions - and early on immersed himself in New Jersey’s kaleidoscope of environmental regulation; by the late 1980s environmental law had become his focus.

Conway went on to become a key leader at a 120-attorney Roseland firm, and by 1999 he joined Morristown-based Schenck, Price, Smith & King. While that firm’s 60 attorneys provide an array of legal services, including environmental litigation and defense, Conway is the firm’s leader on environmental issues, particularly as they relate to transactions.

A voracious reader, Conway is known for his sharp wit and hands-on approach with his clients. He and his wife of 33 years live in North Caldwell; they have two grown children.