Alumni Spotlight

What is your history with Husch Blackwell?

Between general counsel gigs I was working out of a friend’s law firm in San Antonio, but it was increasingly clear I needed a big firm platform. My principal client, Sunflower Electric Power Corporation (and sister entity Mid-Kansas Electric Company LLC) used two KC firms with DC energy practices. I looked at both and chose Husch in 2011 (it may still have been Blackwell Sanders). I became a DC partner but principally worked out of the Husch “Secret San Antonio Office” since there was no Texas office until the Brown, McCarroll merger. I left in October 2014 when startup client GridLiance brought me in as general counsel.

Describe your current role/practice outside of Husch Blackwell.

From October 2014 through my retirement at the end of 2020 I was with GridLiance, helping it grow with funds from The Blackstone Group from the founder’s idea into an operating utility with assets in three Regional Transmission Organization regions. I remain on contract to complete some major regulatory proceedings. Interestingly, Blackstone has an agreement to sell GridLiance to Nextera Energy’s transmission business once all regulatory approvals are obtained. Blackstone was not looking to sell, but Nextera made an offer they couldn’t refuse - $660MM (about 2.4x rate base).

Describe any interesting and emerging trends you’re seeing in your industry.

GridLiance was founded to address an unmet need – giving small (rural cooperative or municipal) utilities the opportunity for comparable transmission reliability at reasonable rates. These utilities are “transmission dependent” – meaning they rely on investor-owned utilities (IOUs) to deliver power they resell to end-users. Since the 1980s the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has had policies for transmission “open access” (deregulation of transmission much like was done for telephones and gas pipelines). Even so, these small utilities often have been relegated to single (or radial) feeds from the power grid, even for some of their larger loads. That means greater risk of outages since there is only line to deliver power. No comparably sized town or city with retail customers served by the incumbent IOU has the same single feed risk. Various ratemaking practices have kept these small utilities from getting similar redundant or “looped” transmission service. Almost from the beginning we have faced competitive headwinds from “incumbent” transmission owners interested in putting GridLiance out of business. But unlike most competitive industries, transmission incumbents can and do use captive ratepayer funds to fight competition. Imagine if Microsoft could use captive customers’ regulated rates to bankroll fights against competition by Apple or vice versa? We have been trying to educate regulators on this perverse ratemaking incentive.

What is one of the most interesting projects on which you’ve worked?

Our first utility partner, Tri-County Electric Cooperative (TCEC), serves most of the Oklahoma Panhandle. We bought its mostly old, radial transmission system, half of which was sold to TCEC in 2006 by Xcel Energy, who found retail service in Oklahoma “uneconomic.” We designed and built modest, targeted reliability upgrades to network the system across three counties. This included “looping” the two radial lines, which run in parallel, just two miles apart. The looped system brought increased reliability to TCEC’s 5,700-square-mile service territory. Just a year after we put those upgrades into service, TCEC has landed a major new industrial load projected to be 90 MW, or even greater (on a system that today has a 150-MW peak). This will be a huge benefit to the Panhandle in terms of jobs and spin-off economic growth. In fact, it will be a major economic development win for the entire state. Oklahoma Panhandle State University estimated that even before the addition of the new load, GridLiance’s investment in the Panhandle resulted in over $400 MM in economic benefits. When the new load arrives in the next couple of years the impact will be even greater. The new customer made it clear that the increased reliability was a pre-condition to its decision to locate in the territory. I’m an Oklahoman, so helping my home state create jobs and opportunities for kids to work where they grow up is gratifying.

What hobbies/activities do you enjoy outside the office?

In 2016 my daughter decided to bike the MS 150, a fundraising ride of around 12,000 cyclists, from Houston to Austin. After what likely was too much wine (collecting wine is another hobby), I said I would join her. I trained for 4 months, learning how to ride a racing bike, and survived for about 90 miles. Since then I have enjoyed biking with friends both around Texas and on trips abroad. I also have a pottery wheel and look forward to spending a lot more time playing with clay in retirement. And as many at Husch know and have supported, I am an advocate for breast cancer research with the National Breast Cancer Coalition.

One last thought:

My experience with GridLiance is a great lesson on how to grow a practice. I was representing Mid-Kansas in negotiations for a joint venture with ITC, an independent transmission company, with two executives “across the table” for ITC. I pulled no punches, so I was surprised when they later left ITC and called to get my input on a new business idea -- targeting cooperative and municipal utilities. It was a fascinating idea. I agreed to work with them and get some promotional time for research, if they agreed we would be their lawyer if the business took off. Two Husch partners knew one of the executives and expressed doubt that he could pull it off, but after some coaxing, the firm approved $10,000 in promotional time. I agreed to work on contingency, with payment at 130 percent of billed time if and when they closed financing. Less than a year (and many hours of my time) later, Blackstone invested and GridLiance was a reality. We got our fees and a big premium, I was asked to go in-house, and Husch Blackwell had a big corporate and regulatory client. So – vigorously represent your clients but don’t treat the “opponent” as the enemy. Importantly, every lawyer, young or old, should keep an eye out for ways to partner with clients on startups or by helping them get a new deal. You never make a goal if you don’t take shots.