Brian utilizes his prior experience in senior business and legal roles over nearly a decade and a half at a major energy company to help electric utilities and natural gas companies navigate complex legal and policy issues before the North Carolina Utilities Commission (NCUC), the Public Service Commission of South Carolina (PSCSC), the Tennessee Public Utility Commission (TPUC), and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).
Brian has managed, led, and provided strategic advice with respect to administrative litigation and regulatory approvals for myriad matters, including, but not limited to, natural gas local distribution company (LDC) rate cases, gas cost prudence, annual rate recovery mechanism, and a wide variety of other state regulatory proceedings; and electric utility storm securitization, fuel and fuel-related cost recovery, natural gas transmission precedent agreement, utility acquisition, generation and transmission-line certificates of public convenience and necessity (CPCNs), and a wide variety of other state regulatory proceedings. In addition, he regularly represents LDCs and natural gas marketers as intervenors in Natural Gas Act (NGA) Section 4 rate case proceedings brought by natural gas transmission companies before FERC, as well as pre-rate case settlement negotiations of a wide variety of natural gas transmission proceedings, including, but not limited to, fuel- and compliance-based tracker cost recovery negotiations.
He is well-versed in energy policy issues impacting the electric and natural gas utility industries, allowing for Brian to provide his clients with advice related to general business and strategic planning, state clean energy standards, and storm damage cost mitigation, among other areas. Prior to his business and legal roles in the energy industry, Brian was a litigation attorney at two large national law firms.
Brian serves on the 1L and 2L recruiting committee for McGuireWoods’ Charlotte Office, and is active in the community, having formerly served on the Board of Directors of Communities in Schools of Charlotte-Mecklenburg, Inc., a local affiliate of a national high school dropout prevention non-profit organization for at-risk youth, as well as its Board President. He has also served on the Board of Directors of the Arts and Science Council, Inc., which supports and promotes arts, science, history, and heritage as the public art agent for the City of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County. Additionally, he is an alumnus of Leadership North Carolina (LNC) Class XXVI and has served multiple terms as a member of the LNC Forum planning committee.
Experience
Below are matters that further demonstrate the breadth of Brian’s practice:
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- Serve as first-chair, manage, and lead successful TPUC approvals of annual multi-million dollar rate recovery mechanisms for Tennessee operating-arm of multi-state jurisdictional LDC.
- Managed and led rate case proceeding for North Carolina operating-arm of multi-jurisdictional LDC.
- Co-managed and led electric generation CPCN proceedings for base load, natural gas-fired, generating facilities before the NCUC.
- Managed annual gas cost prudence proceedings for multiple LDCs in North Carolina.
- Advise and counsel LDCs on myriad regulatory matters before FERC, including but not limited to NGA Section 4 rate case proceedings brought by natural gas transmission providers, as well various cost recovery tracker pre-rate case negotiations brought by similarly situated natural gas transmission providers.
- Served as first-chair, managed, and led the successful NCUC and PSCSC regulatory approvals of annual multi-billion dollar fuel and fuel-related cost recovery requests over nearly a decade for two North Carolina electric utility operating companies.
- Managed and led the successful NCUC regulatory approval request for two North Carolina electric utility operating companies to enter into precedent agreements for firm natural gas pipeline capacity from a planned interstate pipeline.
- Managed and led the successful NCUC regulatory approval of CPCNs for new transmission lines and transmission line rebuilds for two North Carolina electric utility operating companies.
- Defended various NCUC customer complaint cases for nearly a decade for the two largest North Carolina electric utility operating companies.
- Managed and led the successful NCUC regulatory approval of demand-side management and energy efficiency cost recovery requests for the two largest North Carolina electric utility operating companies.
- Managed and led compliance of a North Carolina electric utility operating company with an external affiliate transaction audit following an energy company acquisition.
- Provided legal support in connection with securing NCUC regulatory approval for a natural gas LDC acquisition.
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Columbia Law SchoolJD
Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar
2000 -
Morehouse CollegeBAEnglish
magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa
1997
Member, American Bar Association
Member, Energy Bar Association
Member, North Carolina Bar Association
Member, Mecklenburg County Bar Association
Member, Advisory Board, State Employees Credit Union, 3rd Street Branch, Charlotte, NC, 2018-present
Alumnus, Leadership North Carolina, Class XXVI, 2018–2019; Member, Leadership North Carolina Forum Planning Committee, 2021–2023
Alumnus, McKinsey & Company Black Leadership Academy: Management Accelerator Program, 2020-2021
Member, Board of Directors, Arts & Science Council, Inc., 2012–2018
Member, Board of Directors, Communities in Schools of Charlotte-Mecklenburg, Inc., 2007-2014; President, 2013-2014
- North Carolina
- Panelist, "Electric-Gas Coordination," EBA Midwest Chapter Annual Meeting, November 6, 2023