The Legal 500

Baker Botts L.L.P.’s ‘very knowledgeable’ team is ‘very good at developing strategies’. The firm is a ‘prominent player for litigation and arbitration in the US and has excellent overseas capabilities’. The energy practice is centered in Houston, and attracts numerous clients in the oil and gas sector, although it also handles a substantial amount of electricity and renewable matters as well. The group is underpinned by the firm’s international dispute resolution, appellate, white-collar, securities litigation and environmental practices. The firm is currently defending BP in connection with two lawsuits brought by the attorney general of Texas relating to alleged air emission events at BP’s Texas City Refinery. In these cases, the state is seeking penalties of over $100m and injunctive relief based on alleged air permit exceedances starting with the 2005 isomerization plant tragedy and continuing through to the present day. The firm successfully represented Shell Oil in the high-profile case Shell Oil v Mac’s Shell Services, regarding the contract renewal process of the Petroleum Marketing Practices Act. Highlights also included representing Navajo Refining, a unit of Holly, and ExxonMobil, BP and Western Refining Company in complaint and related proceedings before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the US Courts of Appeals. The matter involved challenging the pipeline rates of SFPP for the transportation of refined petroleum products from El Paso, Texas and Los Angeles, California to Tucson and Phoenix, Arizona. This resulted in a settlement for the clients that required SFPP to pay over $200m in reparations and refunds to shippers. The team is also representing a subsidiary of a US oil and gas company in a multimillion-dollar arbitration against a Norwegian crude oil transportation company, in which the claims arose from purchase and sale agreement for a floating production storage and offloading vessel operating off the coast of an African state; the case is ongoing and a final hearing for quantum remains to be scheduled. Clients also include CenterPoint Energy, EOG, Halliburton, Iberdrola Renewables and NRG Energy. Houston-based Mark Robeck and Mark Glasser lead the team. Washington DC-based Tom Eastment, who is well known for oil pipeline work, and Houston-based Jennifer Smith and Greg Copeland are also recommended.

The ‘phenomenal’ team at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP is ‘significantly strong’ and has ‘weight in energy and related strengths in the legal aspects of engineering, procurement, and construction for such projects’. In addition, the firm’s related practices – notably environment, securities and white-collar crime litigation, and energy M&A, finance and infrastructure projects – add depth to the overall offering. Clients say that the firm is ‘as powerful as it gets’. The group handles a broad range of energy litigation, including FERC trials and appeals, court litigation at the trial and appellate stages, arbitrations, investigations and enforcement. The firm impresses in the electricity sector, as well as the oil and gas industry. In electricity matters, the firm represented RRI Energy in a shareholder class action litigation asserting breach and aiding and abetting breach of fiduciary duties. The firm also represented four electric utilities in non-public reliability enforcement investigations by the FERC Staff into alleged violations of Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) standards. In addition, it is representing a large electric company in trial before FERC administrative law judge into alleged tariff violations with respect to certain power sales. On the oil and gas side, it represented Anadarko Petroleum in shareholder derivative litigation arising out of the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico. It also represented Energy Transfer Partners regarding allegations by FERC that the client unlawfully manipulated natural gas prices at Houston Ship Channel. The case was contested, with FERC Trial Staff seeking over $200m. The case settled on the eve of trial for a civil penalty of only $5m and $25m placed in a fund, which was used to settle collateral litigation. Washington DC-based Clifford Naeve leads the team. Washington DC-based John Estes, who focuses on complex FERC litigation, trial lawyer John Moot in Washington DC and Houston-based Noelle Reed, who has experience representing clients in both business and criminal litigation, are recommended for their ‘tremendous experience and judgment’. Charles Schwartz heads the litigation practice in Houston and is highly regarded

With its origins in Texas, Fulbright & Jaworski LLP has great expertise in all aspects of contentious and non-contentious oil and gas work. Clients say that the firm is ‘practical and experienced’ and has a ‘fully developed global team’. Notably, the firm is representing Shell Oil in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas regarding allegedly underpaying royalties on natural gas and natural gas liquids paid to the US Minerals Management Service for nation-wide production on federal and Indian lands from 1986 through 2005. In addition to its presence in oil and gas, the group is active in the LNF and alternative energy space, and although historically the firm is less known in the electricity arena, it has been more involved in recent years. The firm defended Utility Choice Electric, a retail electric provider in Texas against Calpine, which was its wholesale supplier, regarding Calpine’s termination of its EEI supply agreement and various other agreements with the client based on alleged breaches by Utility Choice Electric. Calpine claimed that Utility Choice Electric owed it a termination payment of approximately $20m. After Calpine filed for bankruptcy in New York, it brought an adversary proceeding against Utility Choice to recover that amount. Utility Choice Electric counterclaimed and defended the case on various grounds; the parties reached a settlement that did not require Utility Choice Electric to pay monies to Calpine. Clients also include various subsidiaries and affiliates of Duke Energy and Shell Oil, as well as Brigham Oil & Gas, Sabco Oil & Gas, EOG, Vantage Drilling and Cabot Oil & Gas. Daniel McClure, who is ‘among the best’ and William Wood, who is ‘excellent’, co-chair the team from Houston, which includes Gerard Pecht and Richard Wilson. Denver-based Osborne Dykes and Poe Leggette, and Los Angeles-based Joshua Lichtman are also highly regarded.

The ‘excellent’ team at King & Spalding LLP provides ‘a high level of service’ and ‘compares favorably in this area on costs, soundness of advice, courtroom presence and case management’. It is a major player in the oil and gas arena, and although the practice is well known for its weight in Texas, the group’s lawyers are active in offices from coast to coast. The firm’s expertise extends to regulatory permitting and disputes, antitrust, environmental, and oil field and mass tort litigation. It also has an international arbitration practice that often handles energy-related matters. The firm is currently lead counsel on behalf of Chevron in litigation and regulatory matters involving the Gulf of Mexico Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Other highlights included achieving a complete defense verdict for Shell Oil after a four-month trial in California in a drinking water contamination case, in which the City of Redlands sued Shell, seeking compensatory and punitive damages relating to contamination of groundwater. Recommended litigator Robert Meadows is ‘one of the best trial lawyers in the country’. Reagan Simpson ‘cannot be matched for appellate law’. Penn Huston is ‘attentive, results oriented, knowledgeable and dedicated’. Washington DC-based Neil Levy is also recommended.

Kirkland & Ellis LLP brings its reputation as a courtroom powerhouse to the energy litigation space. The firm has handled a series of high-profile cases concerning construction issues involving equipment suppliers, architects, construction managers and special litigation committees. It has also handled major contract litigation for independent generators and for partners in gas storage projects, and has represented numerous fuel suppliers in disputes with electric utilities. The firm provides an ‘exceptionally high level of service, which is expensive but efficient and strategic’. It extensively represents BP and its subsidiaries, and most notable is its recent representation of BP in the various litigation matters arising out of the April 2010 Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosion and the resulting oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The team is handling nearly 400 individual and class action lawsuits that have been filed, as well as the Marine Board of Investigation. The firm was also engaged by ConocoPhillips just two months before a scheduled trial in Cameron Parish, Louisiana regarding alleged environmental contamination stemming from the operation of a gas processing facility on the Louisiana coast; the case was settled on the eve of trial. Clients also include Growth Energy, ExxonMobil and YPF and Repsol. The team is spread across its Washington DC and Chicago offices and includes Richard Godfrey, Andrew Langan, James Draughn and Michael Jones.

Sidley Austin LLP’s ‘experienced and knowledgeable’ group is ‘great value for money’ and it is ‘one of the leaders in the energy field’. The firm has a long-standing reputation for representing clients in the oil and gas industries and is also known in the electric utility space. It has experience in electric utility rate litigation at FERC, including numerous trials at FERC on transmission rate matters. The team represents longstanding client Exelon and its subsidiary ComEd on FERC transmission issues and related rate matters. This has included ongoing representation with respect to ComEd’s formula transmission rate, and FERC applications for incentive rates for new transmission facilities being added to the ComEd system. Recently, it represented ComEd in various interconnection disputes, and in FERC contractual disputes against the Midwest ISO and several dozen transmission owners in the Midwest ISO relating to $30m in transmission credits owed to ComEd by the Midwest ISO. The firm has also continued its work for the Alaska Pipeline Project, a joint undertaking of ExxonMobil and TransCanada, to design, construct and operate a 1,700 mile pipeline to bring natural gas from Alaska’s North Slope to North American markets, in which the firm is providing a broad range of advice including commercial, regulatory, environmental and litigation. Washington DC-based global practice coordinator Eugene Elrod is ‘hard working and able to manage a complex docket with a number of moving parts’. William Williams is ‘practical, imaginative and thorough’ and clients also say that he ‘brings a great sense of humour to the file’. Yabo Lin recently joined the group in Palo Alto, California, and brings corporate, acquisition, securities, joint venture and compliance expertise with him.

Steptoe & Johnson LLP’s ‘outstanding’ practice is ‘high quality, always timely and provides a good service’. The group represents a variety of clients in the oil and gas, renewable energy and electricity and LNG sectors, but is best known for its work in the oil space and especially in relation to pipeline matters. It is acting for ConocoPhillips in several Trans Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS)-related matters. At FERC, it was instrumental in crafting a favorable settlement of the TAPS carriers’ 2008 rates, which the Commission approved in April 2010. It also represented Enbridge on its successful effort to procure a Presidential Permit from the State Department to construct a major new crude oil pipeline, known as the Alberta Clipper Pipeline, between the oil sands projects in Alberta, Canada and Superior, Wisconsin. The firm is also currently representing Enbridge Energy in connection with various federal regulatory investigations relating to an oil spill near Marshall, Michigan in July 2010. Clients also include Duke Energy, Northeast Utilities, Orange & Rockland Utilities, Westar Energy and PacifiCorp. Steve Brose, Steve Reed and Daniel Poynor are experienced pipeline lawyers, and are ‘truly excellent problem solvers, with exceptional industry knowledge’. Doug Green, Richard Roberts and David Raskin are also highly regarded.

Vinson & Elkins L.L.P. is ‘a leader in the energy field’ and is ‘truly excellent’. The Houston-based practice is especially known for oil and gas work, in which clients say it is ‘unbeatable’; the firm has ‘key trial lawyers’ in this space. Clients also include exploration and production companies, pipelines, producers, fossil, nuclear, and cogeneration power plant operators, clean-energy providers, state-owned energy companies and major financial players in the energy industry. The firm successfully defended Regency Energy Partners, following a two-week trial, in which Keyes Helium sought between $13m and $32m in damages regarding the shutdown of Regency’s gas processing plant in Kansas. The plaintiff alleged that Regency shut down its plant in an attempt to avoid its contract to supply Keyes with crude helium. Clients also include Duke Energy, Kinder Morgan CO2 Company, Pioneer Natural Resources USA, Plains All American Pipeline and Shell Oil. James Thompson heads the group and has ‘excellent knowledge, is efficient and knows the oil and gas business well’. Mark Rodriguez is ‘intelligent and understands businesses’. Guy Lipe is involved in some of the biggest energy cases and is ‘remarkable’. Associate Matthew Stammel is ‘tough when he needs to be and conciliatory when he needs to be. He puts the client’s interest first and puts his own ego aside’. Karl Stern is also highly recommended.

Bracewell & Giuliani LLP is an energy-focused firm and is heavily orientated towards the oil and gas space, as well as LNG. The energy group benefits strategically from the firm’s locations in London, Dubai and Almaty, Kazakhstan, in addition to its Washington DC and Texas offices. It is currently representing Pride Offshore, now known as Seahawk Drilling, in connection with claims from the loss of a 250 foot platform rig performing drilling services in the Gulf of Mexico, which was destroyed during the time of Hurricane Ike in 2008. The team is defending Belyea Company against Duke Energy over the sale of by Belyea to Duke of an 80MW coal-powered cogeneration power plant located in North Carolina that was to be disassembled and moved to Guatemala; despite extensive due diligence, Duke claims the client and others defrauded it, and those defendants conspired with certain Duke insiders to inflate the purchase price. The group’s clients also include Apache, El Paso, Opal Resources, Pride International and RRI Energy. Glenn Ballard heads the firm’s litigation practice. Paul Fox, Deanna King, Clifford Gunter, Shelby Kelley and Sandra Rizzo are also highly regarded.

Clients state that Covington & Burling LLP’s Washington DC-based practice is particularly strong on energy matters involving the government, and in this regard the team is ‘excellent’. It was recently bolstered by the arrival of Allison Lurton, who was senior counsel at the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission and previously handled a range of matters involving the energy industry including regulatory and enforcement work. The firm is currently advising BP and its affiliates in insurance coverage litigation arising from the Deepwater Horizon incident and Gulf of Mexico oil spill. It advises Southern Montana in connection with FERC issues arising from a range of significant disputes with NorthWestern Energy on interconnection and transmission issues. The firm also defended the PSEG Power Companies in a complaint filed at FERC by Morris Energy alleging affiliate abuse, misrepresentations to the commission, and market manipulation with respect to certain electricity and natural gas practices and activities in wholesale energy markets going back as far as 1996. Clients also include ExxonMobil, Sempra, American Petroleum Institute, Delta, Energy Transfer Partners and Tidewater. William Massey, Andrew Jack and Bill Collins lead the team. Steve Rosenbaum is a key litigator and Oscar Garibaldi is highly regarded for arbitration.

Dickstein Shapiro’s clients include competitive power producers, integrated utilities, financial institutions, energy marketers, trade groups, natural gas pipelines and storage providers, LNG developers, energy consumers, and governmental entities. In addition, it has strong investigation, compliance and administrative capabilities that complement its courtroom expertise. The firm is ‘highly recommended for its industry knowledge’, and represented NorthWestern before the Montana Sixteenth Judicial District Court, Rosebud County in litigation and subsequent arbitration proceeding before a three member panel of arbitrators. The matters involved an assertion by Colstrip that QF rates set by the Montana Public Service Commission (MPSC) were in violation of prior MPSC orders, or alternatively, that the rates were set in breach of a power purchase agreement between NorthWestern and Coalstrip Energy. Key clients also include Duke Energy and Vestas Wind Technology. Washington DC-based Larry Eisenstat heads the team, which includes Joel Kleinman and Michael Engleman.

The ‘outstanding’ Texas-based litigation boutique Gibbs & Bruns LLP is ‘high quality, responsive and one of the best litigation firms’. Clients say that the firm ‘can be more expensive than other Houston firms, but will be somewhat flexible on alternative fee arrangements’, and that it is ‘better used for high stakes litigation’. The firm has a strong following among oil and gas clients. It represented Pioneer Natural Resources in an insurance dispute with certain underwriters at Lloyds of London and Zurich American Insurance, which Pioneer alleged did not fulfil their contractual obligations to compensate the client for an oil platform which was destroyed by Hurricane Rita in September 2005. The case involved damages of over $150m and was settled favorably for the client. Founding partner Robin Gibbs, Barrett Reasoner, Jeffrey Kubin and Sam Cruse are ‘all top flight litigators’. Grant Harvey is ‘dedicated and client orientated’.

The team at Hogan Lovells US LLP is ‘well versed in industry issues’. It houses a leading nuclear power practice, and is active in gas pipeline, storage and transmission matters and is increasing its work in the nuclear power space. The firm successfully represented North Baja regarding South Coast Air Quality Management District’s petition for appellate review of FERC’s orders authorizing the client’s project, which involved a major expansion and reversal of flow of its natural gas pipeline, in order to facilitate regasified LNG. It also recently advised Cleco in efforts to settle federal court litigation, including related matters with entities that are not party to the litigation, resulting in a settlement and regulatory approvals of the commercial arrangements. The complaint was broadly directed to all aspects of the commercial relationships between the parties and alleges fraud, breach of contract, restraint of trade, and negligence, with significant potential damages and with equally significant political and policy implications. Other clients include AEP Energy Services, Apache, American Electric Power Company, Murphy Oil and Central Valley Gas Storage. Kevin Lipson heads the team in Washington DC. Houston-based Tom Bayko and Gib Walton ‘manage cases effectively with a minimum of oversight’.

Morgan Lewis has a ‘creative’ team of lawyers from coast to coast, and advises clients across the energy spectrum including pipelines, oil and gas producers and transmission providers. The firm is also recommended for its work in the nuclear space, in which it advises clients such as Southern California Edison. Clients state that ‘the nuclear team is one of the best in the country’ and that it is ‘timely and effective’. The team has capability to litigate high stakes courtroom matters, including arbitration and administrative disputes. It has represented Shell in multiple high-profile contamination suits involving more than 800 plaintiffs claiming petroleum contamination of a residential area near Los Angeles. Other highlights included representing Weatherford in a patent infringement action involving technology relating to the drilling of oil and gas wells in the US District Court for the Southern District of Texas, which was settled favorably. Brad Fagg and David Schrader co-head the team from Washington DC and Los Angeles respectively.

Morrison & Foerster LLP’s energy team is split between Washington DC and California and ‘performs excellently’. It advises clients on a range of energy issues including nuclear, pipelines, LNG and renewable energy including wind, biomass and on California’s solar initiative. Highlights included representing the State of Alaska in all of its oil pipeline matters before FERC. Notably, it is litigating the level of rates that the TAPS charges shippers of oil; the firm is currently defending a previous victory, which produced lower rates and shipper refunds, on appeal. Clients also include Verizon Wireless and Constellation NewEnergy. Washington DC-based Robert Loeffler, Walnut Creek-based Peter Hanschen and Gordon Erspamer in San Francisco lead the team. Washington DC-based of counsel Blake Nelson has FERC experience including litigation involving rate design and other regulatory issues, and is particularly knowledgeable in the nuclear energy space.

Thompson & Knight LLP’s Houston-based energy practice focuses on a mix of Texas court cases and international arbitrations in the oil and gas arena, and is often involved in drilling, leasing and royalties issues. The ‘capable’ practice ‘performs at the highest level, especially in its expertise, efficiency and sensitivity to the budget’. Clients add that it the group is ‘overall good value for the dollar’ and ‘will not disappoint’. It represented Boots & Coots in its merger transaction with Halliburton, and is currently representing the client in the associated shareholder class action lawsuits and Delaware Chancery court suits. The petitions associated with the class actions seek an injunction prohibiting consummation of the merger, and in one instance, rescission or damages in the event the merger is consummated; these cases are currently pending. Greg Curry leads the team, with Andrew Derman ‘one of a kind’, and Becky Jolin ‘always superb’.

Clients commend Winston & Strawn LLP’s lawyers as ‘very knowledgeable from the associates on up’ and that the work is ‘consistently excellent and the team responds quickly’. While the firm is not inexpensive, it ‘does good job of delegating appropriate tasks to lower-level staff to reduce expenses’. The firm is especially active in the electric and nuclear space. It successfully represented a commercial nuclear utility in the resolution of a $400m default termination dispute related to a $1.2bn nuclear plant decommissioning project, which included state court litigation, a FERC rate case and strategic advice on project completion. It also successfully defended USGen New England after it entered bankruptcy and elected to terminate a natural gas transportation contract with TransCanada Pipelines, which it alleged that it was owed more than $50m in damages for breach of the contract. Clients also include Allegheny Energy Supply Company, NiSource and Entergy. Los Angeles-based Jerry Bloom heads the team. Washington DC-based Gordon Coffee ‘handles complex matters and investigations excellently’ and is ‘smart, knowledgeable about procedures, writes well and is quick on his feet’.