Law Firm Highlights Energy Law, Estate Planning, & Recent Legal Developments Affecting Pennsylvania Clients
[Pennsylvania] – [4/23/2026] – Kostrub Law Firm, PLLC, a law firm serving clients across Western Pennsylvania, announced today an update on its full-service legal offerings in Pittsburgh and Cecil, PA. The firm is sharing new client advisory information covering energy law, estate planning, and recent legal developments that affect landowners, families, and business owners in the region. The announcement reflects the firm’s ongoing commitment to keeping clients informed about how changing laws and market conditions may affect their interests.
Kostrub Law Firm, PLLC has been practicing since 2006, with offices in Pittsburgh and Cecil. The firm focuses on two main areas that reflect what matters most to clients in Washington County and the Greater Pittsburgh region: energy law for landowners sitting on top of the Marcellus Shale, and estate planning for families who want to protect what they have built. Alongside these, the firm handles business law, civil matters, bankruptcy, tax issues, and related advisory work.
The pairing of energy law and estate planning is not something you see at every law firm, but in Western Pennsylvania it makes practical sense. Many local families own land that includes mineral interests, and those interests often pass down through generations. Having a single firm that can negotiate an oil and gas lease today and draft an estate plan tomorrow gives clients continuity that larger general-practice firms do not always provide.
The Marcellus Shale has been producing gas under Washington County for more than fifteen years, and the legal needs of landowners have evolved as leases mature and operators change hands. Kostrub Law Firm handles the full range of energy law matters, including title opinions, lease review and negotiation, division order analysis, royalty dispute work, and surface use matters.
Over the past several years, a number of issues have come up more frequently in the firm’s conversations with landowners. These include deductions on royalty statements that have grown over time, disputes about if the older leases are still valid under the paying quantities standard, and pipeline rights-of-way that have expanded beyond what was originally granted. The firm is increasingly helping clients review their paperwork from earlier periods to make sure current payments match what the original lease promised.
Estate planning is the other pillar of the firm’s practice. The work covers the full range of documents and strategies that go into protecting assets and making sure a client’s wishes are honored. This includes will drafting, trust formation, powers of attorney, living wills, probate administration, and planning around mineral interests that have been inherited or are expected to be passed down.
One area where the firm’s dual focus pays off is in estate plans that include oil and gas royalties. For families in the Cecil and Pittsburgh areas, these interests can be meaningful in value and sensitive in nature. The firm works to make sure mineral rights are properly titled, income streams are handled with appropriate tax planning in mind, and heirs are set up to receive their share without confusion or delay.
Daniel Kostrub and Heather Kostrub, the firm’s founding attorneys, shared their views on what clients in Pittsburgh and Cecil are asking about most often.
The conversations have gotten more specific over the years, Daniel Kostrub said. Early on, people came in with general questions about whether to sign a lease at all. Now they come in with years of royalty statements and want to know if the numbers add up. The analysis is more detailed, but the underlying goal is the same: make sure each client is getting what their paperwork says they should be getting.
Heather Kostrub spoke about the estate planning side of the practice.
Families in this area are thinking more carefully about passing down both traditional assets and mineral interests, she said. We see a lot of situations where grandparents signed a lease decades ago, and now the royalty stream is a real part of the family’s income. Planning for that, and making sure it moves smoothly to the next generation, is one of the things we spend a lot of time on.
We help you protect your loved ones, preserve your assets, and ensure your wishes are honored.
Contact us today or call (304) 982-1586 to schedule a consultation with our trusted wills and estates attorneys in Cecil, PA.
The firm also shared a brief overview of recent developments that may affect clients in both practice areas.
Pennsylvania courts continue to issue decisions on what counts as a permitted deduction under a royalty clause, how to calculate production in paying quantities, and how operators must disclose information to royalty owners. For landowners, this means that disputes which seemed settled a few years ago may now have new legal grounds worth revisiting. The firm is advising clients with older concerns to reconsider a formal review.
Federal estate tax exemptions and state-level rules affecting trusts and probate have continued to evolve. For families with meaningful assets or mineral interests, a periodic review of an existing plan is worth the time. The firm generally recommends that clients revisit their estate plans every few years or after any major life event.
The firm’s advisory approach emphasizes straightforward communication, direct access to attorneys, and written follow-up after meetings. Clients are encouraged to bring all relevant paperwork to a first consultation, including deeds, leases, royalty statements, existing estate documents, and any correspondence from operators or other parties. The more complete the file, the faster the firm can provide useful guidance.
Kostrub Law Firm, PLLC is a Pennsylvania law firm serving clients from offices in Pittsburgh, PA and Cecil, PA. Founded in 2006 by Daniel B. Kostrub and Heather N. Kostrub, the firm focuses on energy law and estate planning, with practice areas including oil and gas law, title opinions, division orders, lease negotiation, wills and trusts, power of attorney, business law, civil law, bankruptcy, and tax law. The firm’s attorneys are admitted to practice in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Virginia, and have held leadership positions in industry organizations including the Women’s Energy Network (Appalachian Chapter) and the American Association of Professional Landmen.
Heather N. Kostrub Kostrub Law Firm, PLLC
Phone: +1 304-982-1586
Email: heatherkostrub14@gmail.com
Website: https://kostrublaw.com/
Offices: Pittsburgh, PA and Cecil, PA
