Erin Magee recalls when she was the only woman at the table while dealing with legal issues at energy companies.
During a recent “lunch and learn” event at Rice Energy organized by the Women's Energy Network chapter that she helped found, though, Magee was greeted by 40 women.
“To go from having been the only woman in the room to seeing that is just amazing,” said Magee, 48, an attorney with the firm Jackson Kelly.
In recognition of her work to establish the Appalachian chapter in 2011 and pave a path for others, the Women's Energy Network plans to honor Magee with a Pioneer Award.
“It's rewarding to hand the leadership to the next generation,” said Magee, the chapter's founding president. “They're running and flying with it.”
A Columbus native and graduate of the College of William and Mary, Magee has spent her entire 23-year career with Jackson Kelly.
Her work with the advocacy group brought her to Pittsburgh, where her firm has an office and the shale boom provided plenty of legal work, especially involving employment issues.
“There were a lot of questions about compliance with laws,” she said, noting that Department of Labor wage and hour audits of energy firms kept her busy.
She split her time between Pittsburgh and West Virginia until recently; massive layoffs in the coal industry have kept her close to her home in Charleston full time.
“We've probably lost 12,000 people in the Central Appalachian coal mines,” Magee said. The layoffs prompt lawsuits from displaced workers claiming discrimination or retaliation.
“It used to be that if you were laid off, you could walk across the street and get another job. Not anymore,” she said.
Magee is involved with several community groups in Charleston and professional organizations such as the Energy and Mineral Law Foundation.
She hopes to return soon to working in Pittsburgh, where she kept an apartment in the Strip District. The oil and gas industry that continues to grow here is further ahead in integrating women than coal, Magee said, but work remains.
“I got comfortable being the only woman at the table. But I want it to be different for the next generation,” she said.
