Brunini Law

Washington, D.C.

Curt Hebert, a partner at Brunini, Grantham, Grower & Hewes, PLLC,  serves as co-chair for the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Electric Grid Cybersecurity Initiative in Washington, D. C.  The initiative released recommendations on how the government and industry can be prepared to protect electric grids against cyber attacks.  The U.S. Department of Homeland Security collected information and the initiative including Hebert, and two other co-chairs, made recommendations regarding the information collected.

From the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Press Release, “Cyber attacks on key energy infrastructure, including the electricity system, are increasing in terms of frequency and sophistication. Electric grid failures are costly and have the potential to profoundly disrupt delivery of essential services, including communications, food, water, health care and emergency response. In light of these developments, BPC convened the Electric Grid Cybersecurity Initiative – a hybrid project of BPC’s Energy and Homeland Security Projects – to tackle these challenges.”

Press Release:  Bipartisan Policy Center Press Release

Read the entire report here.

Curt participated in several nationally distributed interviews, to view choose the links below.

Reuters TV

Fox News

Bloomberg

In 2012, the Secretary of the United States Department of Education (“DOE”) entered an Order finding that Business Communications, Inc. (“BCI”) retaliated in violation of the whistleblower provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (“ARRA”) in terminating an employee after he made wage-related complaints. The DOE ordered BCI to pay back wages and to reinstate the former employee.   On behalf of BCI, Steve Carmody and Cody Bailey appealed the DOE’s Order to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.  Carmody and Bailey argued that the DOE deprived BCI of its constitutional right to due process by ordering BCI to pay damages and to reinstate the former employee without allowing BCI an opportunity for a hearing to defend itself.  Likewise on behalf of BCI, Carmody and Bailey also argued that the whistleblower provisions of ARRA, found in section 1553, are facially unconstitutional because they do not allow for a due-process hearing.  The Eighth Circuit ruled in favor of BCI, granting BCI’s petition for review and vacating the Secretary of Education’s Order.  The Court held that “minimum due process for BCI in this context requires either a pre- or post-deprivation hearing that provides BCI with the opportunity to confront adverse evidence and cross examine adverse witnesses.”  The Court further held that “BCI’s due process rights were violated because the DOE never provided BCI a hearing and because the post-deprivation procedures available under § 1553 do not provide any opportunity for BCI ‘to confront and cross examine adverse witnesses,’ thereby depriving BCI of an essential element of due process.”

Brunini, Grantham, Grower & Hewes, PLLC has made the short list of Litigation Law Firm of the Year for Mississippi in the 2014 edition of Benchmark Litigation. Brunini is one of only four firms in Mississippi to achieve this honor, with the following attorneys ranked as “Mississippi Local Litigation Stars” in their respective practice areas:

• Cheri Green : Commercial Litigation, Health Care, Personal Injury and Product Liability
• William Trey Jones III : Appellate, Commercial Litigation, Litigation – Environmental, Personal Injury and Product Liability
• R. David Kaufman: Commercial Litigation, Litigation – Environmental, Personal Injury and Product Liability
• Patrick McDowell: Appellate
• Christopher Shapley: Appellate, Commercial Litigation and Litigation – Environmental
• Joseph Sclafani: recognized as a “Mississippi Future Star.”

Benchmark Litigation is a guide to America’s leading litigation firms and attorneys. Their results stem from the culmination of a research period that was conducted between March and November 2013, where researchers conducted interviews with litigators and their clients to identify the leading litigators and firms.

All winners will be announced at a ceremony held on Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2014 at the Essex House in New York. For more information on Benchmark Litigation’s shortlist, please visit http://www.benchmarklitigation.com/article/4327-us-benchmark-annual-awards-2014-shortlist-announced-12-05-2013.

Watts Ueltschey will speak at the National Business Institute’s seminar, “FRACLAW: From Land Contract Negotiations to Environmental Disputes, What You Need to Know about the Key Legal Issues in Oil and Gas Extraction.”  The seminar will take place on Nov. 14, 2013 at the BancorpSouth Conference Center in Tupelo, Miss., from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Ueltschey’s presentation will cover Lease/Ownership Challenges and Disputes.

Ueltschey has represented a number of companies in the energy sector on a variety of matters, including handling disputes with land owners; preparation of mining, drilling and division order title opinions; transactions involving the purchase and sale of producing properties; and representation before the Mississippi State Oil and Gas Board. He has represented clients in connection with gas storage, including acquisition of existing storage facilities; acquisition of surface and subsurface rights for the construction of storage facilities in salt domes and depleted gas fields; and obtaining regulatory authority for such facilities at the state level.

Ueltschey’s litigation experience also includes controversies over deed construction, joint operating agreements, boundary line disputes and expiration of oil and gas leases on school lands.

To register for this seminar, call 1(800) 930-6182 FREE or visit www.nbi-sems.com 

Curt Hébert of Brunini, Grantham, Grower & Hewes, PLLC has been named by Smart Grid Today as one of the 50 Smart Grid Pioneers of 2013. SmartGridToday.com delivers comprehensive daily reporting on the modern utility industry and those named as Pioneers are the experts and risk-takers to whom the website turns to explain in detail the industry’s most newsworthy moves, insights, advances, setbacks and new concerns.

Honorees ranged from industry leaders working inside conglomerates such as General Electric and IBM to entrepreneurs at small firms like Retroficiency and TEMIX. Also included were utility executives, regulators and political figures working on smart grid solutions to electricity challenges around the world.

“These interviews reveal the details of this evolving industry from perspectives that give it depth, with guide markers on what works and warnings about where the risks lie,” Smart Grid Today Publisher Sam Spencer said.  “We salute all the pioneers who are forging ahead and invite them to look to the 50 people in this report for guidance.”

Hébert, a partner in the Brunini Law Firm, former FERC chairman, former Mississippi state regulator and former Executive Vice President of Entergy Corporation commented, “I am honored to have been selected as a Smart Grid Pioneer. It is critical that we better understand the evolving needs of customers while also mitigating risks against cyber security on the electric grid.  Reliable energy is essential to attracting necessary industry to our region and smarter networks provide more certainty to those industries.” Hébert is a visiting scholar with the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington, D.C., where he co-chairs the Energy Reliability Task Force and The Electric Grid Cyber Security Initiative.

About Smart Grid Today:

Smart Grid Today’s mission is to deliver daily, unbiased, comprehensive and original reporting on emerging trends, applications and policies driving the modern utility industry — in a signature format our founders have developed over decades in the trade news business, featuring highly concise and easy-to-understand news copy based on trusted reporting, exclusive interviews, informed analysis and strategic insights that our subscribers rely on to succeed every business day.  Smart Grid Today is published by Modern Markets Intelligence, Inc.