How does energy law differ from another type of legal practice?
I serviced mostly natural gas and electric companies, and the work that I did pertained to their basic business and their status as regulated utilities. Although companies like that have contract issues and uniform commercial code issues and other routine business issues, I dealt with energy law and policy issues akin to the ones I had dealt with in the government. For example, how particular sources of natural gas were going to be priced under the NGPA was very important to my clients. What kind of a relationship could a pipeline company have with its marketing affiliate under the commission’s rules? What positions on a pipeline’s cost of service would we take in an upcoming rate filing? Those are the kinds of questions that a whole sector of the bar has dealt with historically. As a matter of fact, there is an Energy Bar Association that is active here in Washington and in Houston. I think we may have a Chicago chapter now, but for the most part those are the areas of the country whe
