Practice Areas & Industries: Barnes & Thornburg LLP

Practice/Industry Group Overview

The Energy, Telecommunications and Utilities Department of Barnes & Thornburg LLP has a rich history. For more than 50 years, our lawyers have been involved in the development of seminal Indiana law in these areas. We represent a wide variety of energy, telecommunications, video and water and wastewater clients. In recent years, we have appeared in hundreds of proceedings before the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission. These cases have included the prosecution of large hotly contested rate cases for Indiana public utilities and the defense of rate investigations initiated by others. We have also appeared before federal agencies in Washington, D.C., and state and federal courts throughout the United States. The broad scope of the department's practice is found in few law firms. We serve investor-owned, municipal, and other utilities; telecommunications companies; energy providers; large consumers, developers and property owners in a wide array of regulatory, adversarial, and transactional matters.

Administrative Litigation
The department regularly handles administrative litigation before federal and state agencies. These matters typically include:

• Technical conferences
• Settlement conferences
• Depositions and other discovery
• Formal evidentiary hearings
• Trackers
• Petitions, briefs, motions, and proposed orders.

The department frequently becomes involved in court appeals, declaratory judgment actions, injunction proceedings, condemnation cases, and other actions related to regulatory issues.

Transactions
Our lawyers work closely with the firm's Business and Governmental Services Departments to provide representation for utilities, telecommunications companies, and energy providers in all types of financing transactions, including:

• Public offerings
• Tax-exempt bond issues
• Private placements
• Credit facilities
• Government grant and loan programs

Utility acquisitions and mergers is a very active area for our department. Our services include resolution of federal-state jurisdictional conflicts; the dividing line between regulated and non-regulated activities; affiliate relationships; preemption issues; and commerce-clause issues.

We assist clients in preparing and negotiating contracts for the purchase, sale, transmission, and distribution of energy, telecommunications, water and wastewater products and services. We are actively involved in drafting and negotiating wholesale energy master trading agreements and energy management agreements. We also negotiate EPC contracts for the construction of energy facilities.

Deregulation
The department keeps abreast of rapidly changing laws and regulations with respect to industry restructuring, customer choice, and competition. Many of our clients have facilities in states where competition is now allowed in the provision of energy and telecommunications services.

Legislation
Our office in Washington, D.C., gives us ready access to federal agencies including the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and Federal Communications Commission. Our lawyers serve as outside counsel for utility trade associations. Our clients frequently call on us to assist them in legislative and governmental affairs, including drafting of proposed legislation, preparing policy white papers, testifying at legislative hearings, and lobbying. We often call upon our Governmental Services Department to assist in these matters to provide our clients with professionals experienced both in the substantive law and the process for accomplishing legislative change.