Energy Group Of The Year: Pillsbury

The firm organizes its energy group by industry instead of practice area because the context of the transaction or case is more important than "legal practice areas," said partner Robert A. James, co-head of Pillsbury's Energy industry team. "About 20 percent of the firm's attorneys are part of Pillsbury's energy team — which the firm defines as any attorney who works with energy companies, so the practice can extend to attorneys who do mostly litigation or finance work."

Although the firm has offices in New York, Washington, DC, Houston and California, geographical boundaries do not matter, according to James. "What we've done is blown apart the office distinction," he said. "In terms of organizing the firm, the focus is on the practice and industry team rather than geography."

Pillsbury attorneys also collaborate within the energy practice. "We elevate things to the energy-team level," James said. He added that by keeping attorneys who work with clients in oil, gas, renewables, nuclear and other energy sectors together, Pillsbury hopes to keep attorneys across practices and specialties talking to one another, he said.

One of Pillsbury's significant victories in 2010 was on behalf of Dynegy. The case was filed on behalf of retail customers in Tennessee claiming they were damaged when excess charges paid by their utilities in wholesale transactions were passed on to end users.  In response to arguments developed by Pillsbury attorneys, the Tennessee Supreme Court ultimately agreed with defendants that Tennessee state law could not be "used to regulate the wholesale transactions that [the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission] no longer had jurisdiction over" said partner Michael Kass, who represented Dynegy in the litigation.  Kass added that related cases filed in Kansas, Wisconsin, Colorado and Missouri were successfully removed to federal court and consolidated into a multidistrict litigation proceeding in Las Vegas where summary judgment motions are pending.

In addition, the article reports on Pillsbury’s victory on behalf of the Nebraska Public Power District, ConocoPhillips Co., Caithness Energy LLC, INR Energy LLC and Babcock & Wilcox.