Beltway Moves: Dhillon Law, Winston & Strawn, Covington
December 6, 2024
Energy Partner Mark Williams' arrival at Day Pitney was highlighted in Law360 Pulse as part of a broader feature on notable law firm moves and industry trends.
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For nearly a century, Day Pitney lawyers have been nationally recognized for their Energy and Utilities practice. Representing a diverse group of clients across the nation and around the world, we develop and implement innovative solutions to the complex challenges confronting the energy and utility industries. Our clients include electric, gas and water utilities; debt and equity investors; generators, transmitters and marketers; equipment contractors; and other energy and utility market participants.
Day Pitney's Energy and Utilities lawyers utilize the full range of our firm's resources to meet the diverse needs of our clients. As required, we assemble teams of lawyers with experience in energy development and regulation, mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures, corporate, tax, finance, antitrust, litigation, real estate, and environmental law.
Our lawyers have extensive knowledge of the energy and utility industries, the regulatory environment in which they operate and their highly competitive landscapes. Our team includes lawyers who have held senior executive positions in the energy industry and in government. Members of the team serve, or have served, as general counsel to the New England Power Pool (NEPOOL), special nuclear general counsel to a utility during the time its plants were on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) watch list, and general counsel for two nuclear plants during their decommissioning. Several of our lawyers have extensive prior experience as members of the in-house law departments of major utilities or energy companies.
We assist our clients in navigating critical business issues that define the ever-changing energy and utility industries, including matters involving:
- Federal and state regulation and compliance
- Infrastructure development and investments
- Mergers, consolidations and divestitures
- Renewable energy
- Nuclear energy
- Water companies
- Trial and appellate litigation
- Bankruptcy, reorganization and restructuring
- Siting, both environmental and real estate
- Natural gas, including Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) and Compressed Natural Gas (CNG)
- Administrative hearings and alternative dispute resolution
Day Pitney's clients continue to be at the forefront of both the retail and wholesale utility sectors. We have created new organizational vehicles to drive industry restructuring, such as Independent System Operators (ISOs), Regional Transmission Organizations (RTOs), stakeholder boards and Renewable Energy Certificate (REC) tracking systems. We have also assisted entities with major divestitures, corporate reorganizations, new product offerings and related issues arising out of electric industry restructuring. Our clients have retained us to represent them before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the NRC, the Department of Energy (DOE), the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and other state and federal regulatory bodies across the country. We routinely work with executive and legislative officials at the highest state and federal levels. We also have worked with the North American Energy Reliability Corporation (NERC) and have advised clients on NERC-related matters.
Transmission Development
We have provided strategic counsel to clients in the FERC's transmission reform efforts to facilitate the development of new transmission assets, as directed in FERC’s Order No. 1000. In addition to working with public utilities in developing tariff language to meet that Order, our attorneys have also worked with new transmission-focused entities across the country in transmission formula and incentive rate applications that are designed to support their effective participation in the competitive solicitation processes administered by the RTOs. We have also assisted merchant transmission developers in their efforts to obtain negotiated rate authorizations and other project development regulatory approvals.
Areas of Focus
Energy companies can count on Day Pitney to handle their complex litigation needs with skill and efficiency. Our firm has a nationally recognized energy practice, and our litigators bring a robust understanding of the energy industry to dispute resolution. We work to achieve a prompt, favorable resolution for clients through early motion practice, negotiation or mediation, but always have an eye on the potential need to bring the matter to trial in court or arbitral forums. Our energy litigators work side by side with our transactional and regulatory teams to spot and defuse issues before they lead to a dispute.
Our Energy Regulation and Compliance practice group has been at the forefront of regulatory development in the energy industry. We are involved in nearly every wholesale market and credit issue in New England and assist clients in meeting their obligations to comply with the evolving regulatory requirements. We work closely with state and federal regulators on a routine basis. We help our clients throughout North America navigate critical issues that define their evolution and identity in the changing world of the energy industry.
Read the full Energy Regulation and Compliance practice description
As the United States moves toward its 2030 clean energy targets, energy storage resources offer unique and critical capabilities for the future management of the nation's natural gas and electric infrastructure. Electric storage—whether stand-alone or hybrid, utility-scale or behind the meter—presents challenges of rapidly evolving technologies and markets along with changing laws and regulations and unclear boundaries between the intersection of federal and state jurisdictions. In addition, conventional natural gas storage projects present a host of regulatory, rate, tariff, compliance and permitting issues.
Our Infrastructure Practice group has been a forward-looking participant in the innovation of the industry, advising developers, contractors, lenders and other investors on matters relating to the development and commercial operation of energy, water, hospital and educational projects. Our attorneys have substantial regulatory, transactional and permitting experience and can provide our clients with all the legal services needed to develop, operate and finance a project. We also have significant experience with restructuring difficult infrastructure projects and restoring them to a path for successful operation.
The natural gas market faces unprecedented structural changes, requiring experienced guidance in state and federal regulatory matters and in the development of legislative policy. For decades, Day Pitney attorneys have advised clients on strategies for managing the continuing evolution of the industry as well as for navigating the legal, credit and regulatory risks that impact our clients' most difficult projects.
For more than 35 years, Day Pitney attorneys have been at the leading edge of issues related to the nuclear energy industry, through both prosperity and difficulty. We have guided utilities in major transactions and strategic planning and in complex state and federal litigation and rate matters before federal and state agencies. Our work has encompassed plant selection, siting, procurement, structuring of ownership and operating entities, licensing and construction issues, federal regulation, operational issues, prudence and other investigations, decommissioning, Price-Anderson Act issues, federal preemption, and Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and industry assessment of performance and litigation.
Day Pitney's energy attorneys represent developers, power and renewable energy certificate (REC) purchasers, and investors on matters relating to the development, interconnection, siting and commercial operation of offshore wind projects and their associated transmission facilities.
Day Pitney advises developers, contractors, utilities, power marketers, lenders and other investors on matters relating to the development and commercial operation of renewable energy projects. Our attorneys have counseled clients on a wide variety of green power projects: wind, solar, hydroelectric, biomass, geothermal, landfill gas, smart grid, energy storage, fuel cells, micro grids, energy efficiency and demand-side management. Our team includes lawyers focusing primarily on energy law, environmental law, real estate, finance, mergers and acquisitions, tax law, and intellectual property.
Our Telecommunications and Cable Regulation practice group helps some of the nation's largest telecommunications and cable companies navigate the rapidly changing legislative and regulatory landscape. As regulators work hard to keep pace with ever-evolving technologies, these companies seek the counsel of Day Pitney attorneys to shape and comply with changing requirements.
Read the full Telecommunications and Cable Regulation practice description
Day Pitney serves as principal outside counsel to the largest investor-owned water company in New England, providing this client with legal assistance relating to every aspect of its operations. We represent water companies in state regulatory proceedings and before state and federal courts. We have also represented water company clients in numerous complex transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, contractual, and finance transactions. We provide water companies with advice regarding water quality and environmental regulations, real estate acquisitions and sales, labor and employment issues, and tax matters.
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