Congratulations to Deacon Marco M. Rajkovich Jr., who has been nominated to be a Member of the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission. Deacon Rajkovich is a Commissioner and former Chair of the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission. Prior to that, he was Co-Manager of the Lexington, Kentucky law firm of Rajkovich, Williams, Kilpatrick, & True, PLLC, was formed in 2005. From 1987 to 2005, he was with the Lexington office of Wyatt, Tarrant, & Combs, LLP as Partner, Co-Chair of the Mineral & Energy Practice Group, Chair of the Mine Safety Litigation Subgroup and served in various management positions with the law firm.
Prior to his law career, he was with U.S. Steel Mining Company, Inc. from 1974 to 1984 serving in various positions in engineering as well as production. He is a licensed professional engineer – mining, a licensed professional land surveyor, and a certified underground mine foreman in Kentucky. Deacon Rajkovich is also a permanent deacon of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Lexington, as well as the Diocese of Arlington, Virginia. He and his wife, Kathleen, currently reside in Reston, Virginia.
Deacon Rajkovich is a 1973 graduate of Lynch High School, 1977 graduate of the University of Kentucky College of Engineering where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering with the Mining Option and was a member of Chi Epsilon Civil Engineering Honorary. He is a 1987 graduate of the University of Kentucky College of Law where he was a member of the Journal of Mineral Law & Policy. He also holds a 2016 Master of Arts (Pastoral Theology) from Saint Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology.
Deacon Rajkovich was given the 2008 Achievement in Mining Award by the Kentucky Society of Professional Engineers (KSPE), was a six-time recipient of the KSPE President’s Award, named a Kentucky Superlawyer, given the 2011 Honorary Membership in the Kentucky Association of Professional Surveyors, named in Best Lawyers in America as 2014 Lawyer of the Year – Energy Law – Lexington, Kentucky, and was given the 2014 Distinguished Alumni Award, Mining Engineering by the University of Kentucky.
Throughout his career, Deacon Rajkovich has authored several articles and contributed to several treatises regarding mining. For many years, he was authorized by the Kentucky Board of Licensure for Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors as an instructor on ethics and minimum technical standards and has given national presentations on ethics for the National Society of Professional Engineers.