Practice Areas & Industries: Jones Day

Practice/Industry Group Overview

Jones Day's Energy Delivery & Power team advises participants in the utility and power industries worldwide. Our lawyers combine legal knowledge with an in-depth understanding of the business aspects of the utility and power industries to help clients bring transactions, regulatory proceedings, and disputes to successful completion.

Jones Day's clients include domestic and international electric and gas utilities, natural gas pipelines, independent power producers, electric transmission companies, developers and owners of wind power and other renewable energy sources, construction, engineering and environmental firms, companies trading electricity and natural gas, and financial institutions providing capital and related services to these industries.

The Energy Delivery & Power team brings together lawyers from numerous legal disciplines in order to provide specialized and comprehensive services to clients. Our services range from assisting clients on specific projects, such as acquisitions, restructurings, public offerings, project finance transactions and regulatory filings, to advising clients on a daily basis on compliance with the securities laws, Sarbanes-Oxley, the Federal Power Act, the Natural Gas Act, PUHCA 2005, ERISA and environmental laws. Our team includes lawyers who understand the traditional principles and the evolving trends of economic regulation applied to emerging and established power and energy delivery companies. They have extensive experience in litigating rate cases, service issues, and other types of industry issues before state public utility commissions, the FERC and the courts. For example, Jones Day is defending an electric utility against "global warming" claims by the State of New York and several other states.

By identifying and addressing risks and opportunities up front, Jones Day has enabled clients to achieve a number of industry firsts and other innovative transactions. In the U.S., our lawyers have helped establish industry precedents, structuring and gaining approval for the first acquisition by a vertically integrated utility of a merchant power plant operating in its control area - OG&E's acquisition of the McClain plant from NRG Energy - as well as providing corporate and regulatory advice on the first three long-distance electric utility mergers, resulting in the formation of Exelon and Xcel Energy and the combination of AEP with Central and South West Corporation. We have participated in various complex and notable power financings around the world, including Desert Sky (North America Renewables Deal of the Year in 2002), Gilroy Peakers (North America Project Bond Deal of the Year in 2003), Phu My 3 ("Asia Pacific Multisource Deal of the Year" in 2003), and Limestone Electron, identified by Standard & Poor's as one of the most creative financings in 2000. Jones Day also was instrumental in the development of the EEI Master Power Purchase and Sale Agreement and related Collateral Annex and Master Netting Agreement, used widely throughout the U.S. electric industry.

Jones Day's history with the traditional vertically-integrated utility industry dates to 1898 when the firm began representing a local gas utility (a client to this day). Since then our lawyers have become increasingly involved worldwide in all aspects of the generation and delivery of energy, and together with our Oil and Gas team, we advise some of the world's largest energy-related companies, including one-third of those listed in the Fortune 500. Leading industry and legal publications such as The American Lawyer, Chambers and Partners, and Project Finance have recognized Jones Day as one of the most prominent law firms in the energy industry.

Contact(s)

Peter D. Clarke
Chicago
Tel: 1.312.782.3939

William F. Henze II
New York
Tel: 1.212.326.3939
Houston
Tel: 1.832.239.3939

Richard D. Avil Jr.
Washington
Tel: 1.202.879.3939

Clark Evans Downs
Washington
Tel: 1.202.879.3939