Catherine M. “Kate” Harper, a partner with the Fort Washington-based law firm Timoney Knox LLP, will present a workshop Nov. 28 in Philadelphia as part of a Pennsylvania Bar Institute forum on the environment and natural gas development.

Harper, of Lower Gwynedd, will discuss the local regulation of oil and gas operations, one of a number of topics to be covered in the forum at the PBI’s CLE Conference Center in the Wanamaker Building. The program will focus on concerns about the environmental impact of gas drilling and the hydraulic fracturing process in the Marcellus Shale region of the commonwealth.

Harper, who represents the 61st district in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and whose law practice includes municipal and zoning law, long has been active in environmental issues in Montgomery County and Lower Gwynedd Township where she was chairman of the board of supervisors. She is a charter member and past chair of the Montgomery County Lands Trust. She also is former chair of the Montgomery County Open Space Planning Board where she helped create Montgomery County’s Open Space Plan, and a former member of the Montgomery County Planning Commission.

The forum will be held at the CLE Conference Center in the Wanamaker Building.