Brunini, Grantham, Grower & Hewes, PLLC (Brunini) announced that George O’Connor, former trial attorney with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and former Vice President for Entergy Corporation, is joining the law firm.  O’Connor will bring his extensive energy and regulatory experience to Brunini’s Washington, D.C. office.

“George knows Washington, energy litigation and federal energy policy,” said Brunini’s Curt Hebert, Jr who is former Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman.  “Our country’s energy revolution is powering the American manufacturing renaissance.  George, with his extensive FERC experience, including his leadership role on the drafting and passage of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, as well as his corporate and private legal practice background, is the right person to assist our clients in taking advantage of that revolution. George has the objective experience to see clients’ needs through many prisms and we are delighted George has chosen to join Brunini.”

O’Connor served as an advisor to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commissioner Charles A. Trabandt from 1985-1993 prior to working in FERC’s Office of General Counsel.  George’s experience includes regulatory practice, FERC and Senate staff leadership and he has a proven record of working with Congress and at the FERC.  From March 2008-November 2010, he was hired by Entergy Corporation as Vice President of Federal Governmental Affairs.

Brunini’s Energy Practice is regarded as a premier regulatory practice.  In rating Brunini as a Band 1 Firm, Chambers USA 2012 Client’s Guide notes:  “[The Firm] has a wealth of experience in energy regulation and litigation.  Over the years, the team has undertaken a number of large projects throughout the South, providing a full range of services, including regulation, permitting, financing, real estate and contract advice.”

P. David Andress, a partner of Brunini, Grantham, Grower & Hewes, PLLC, was recently selected as a Fellow in the American College of Mortgage Attorneys.  The American College of Mortgage Attorneys, founded in 1974, includes attorneys who are highly skilled and experienced in lending transactions secured by real estate and related practice areas.

David has been with the Brunini Firm since 1991.  His practice focuses primarily on commercial real estate including the acquisition, sale, leasing and financing of commercial properties.  Along with being selected as a Fellow, David has also been recognized by Best Lawyers® in America and Chambers USA for real estate law and has a Martindale Hubbell rating of “AV Preeminent”.

Curt Hébert, a partner at Brunini, Grantham, Grower & Hewes, PLLC was featured as a guest co-writer for an article posted on CNBC.com on March 30, 2014.  The article is titled “Risky business: Protecting US energy supplies” and you can read the entire article HERE.

Hébert is the former chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and currently serves as the a co-chair of the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Electric Grid Cybersecurity Initiative.

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.

Sam Kelly of Brunini, Grantham, Grower & Hewes, PLLC has been selected as the Construction Industry Person of the Year by the Mississippi Associated Builders and Contractors (MABC).

Kelly was recognized at the annual Mississippi ABC Merit Awards Banquet at the Jackson Country Club on November 1 and delivered a speech after the award was presented.

“This is a high honor for which Sam is well deserving.  We are extremely proud of his achievement and this outstanding recognition for the leadership he provides to the construction industry and to our firm in this important practice area,” said Granville Tate, Jr., chairman of Brunini’s Board of Directors.

The Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC), Inc. is the fastest-growing construction trade association in America, operating through 25,000 nationwide member firms. The Mississippi Chapter of ABC is the largest trade association of its kind in the state, setting standards for the industry in its attempt to promote a fair and profitable business way of life.

Brunini’s Kelly is an active member of and serves as General Counsel to the Mississippi Associated Builders and Contractors and the Mississippi Road Builders Association.  He is also an active member of the Associated General Contractors of Mississippi.  Kelly’s practice focuses on the construction industry and includes contract preparation and negotiations, bid protests, claim preparation and evaluation and dispute resolution.  In the field of Construction Litigation, he has been recognized by Best Lawyers® in America, Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers, and Mid-South Super Lawyers®.  Kelly was named Best Lawyer® Lawyer of the Year 2012 Jackson-MS in Construction Litigation.

Curt Hébert, a partner with the law firm of Brunini, Grantham, Grower & Hewes, PLLC, was recently interviewed and quoted in four national major media outlets concerning national energy policy.

The New York Times and National Public Radio (NPR) quoted Hébert, former chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, in stories regarding strategy and preparedness of the country’s power grid against a possible cyber-attack.  Hébert was also one of several participants in a mid-August Washington conference on the need to better protect the electric grid from such attacks, which most experts believe are inevitable.

Hébert contributed his knowledge and insights for the 2013 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and was featured in a video summary of the report.

Additionally, Fox Business Channel’s Liz Claman interviewed Hébert on the subject of news reports that the United States Department of Justice is investigating trading in energy markets by JPMorgan Chase.

Hébert’s recent interviews and articles can be found by visiting the following websites:

New York Times – As Worries Over the Power Grid Rise, a Drill Will Simulate a Knockout Blow

NPR – The Next Disaster Scenario Power Companies Are Preparing For

Fox Business Channel video – DOJ Investigating J.P. Morgan’s Energy Business

ASCE Report Card – http://www.infrastructurereportcard.org/a/#e/energy-video-01

Hébert recently wrote and published “The Most Critical of Economic Needs (Risks): A Quick Look at Cybersecurity and the Electric Grid” for the prestigious Electricity Journal. The article centered on the need for increased focus on cybersecurity as it relates to the national electric grid.

Hébert is a visiting scholar with the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington, D.C., where he co-chairs the Energy Reliability Task Force. He most recently served as Chief Executive Officer of Lexicon Strategy Group, an energy, finance and regulatory law advisory firm with offices in Mississippi, Louisiana and Washington, D.C.