Attorneys at Miller, Balis & O'Neil, P.C., have handled many important and precedent-setting energy cases in the appellate courts.
The Firm has provided its clients a range of services relating to appellate legal matters, including:
preparing petitions for review of agency decisions;
handling motions and prehearing practice in complex, multi-party court appeals of agency rulemakings and orders;
intervening in support of or opposition to appeals by other parties;
briefing and arguing appeals on the merits;
preparing amicus curiae briefs;
preparing or opposing petitions for review in the Supreme Court of the United States and in state supreme courts;
preparing or opposing petitions for writs of mandamus and other extraordinary judicial relief;
advising on strategic appellate issues, e.g., whether and where to appeal; and
handling appeals before regulatory bodies.
Miller, Balis & O'Neil attorneys combine decades of knowledge of energy law and policy with specialized experience in judicial review of agency decisions and the broader legal and policy perspectives of appellate courts. Several attorneys at the firm have served as judicial law clerks. One of the firm's principals served as an attorney in Solicitor's office at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, briefing and arguing appeals of energy matters in the federal courts of appeals and at the petition stage in the Supreme Court.
The firm's attorneys keep abreast of legal trends in the federal appeals courts and study the views of individual judges on important issues so that it can advocate best for its clients in cutting-edge areas of regulatory law. The firm works regularly with trade associations and governmental agencies in order to obtain the support of amicus curiae.
The following are representative matters handled by Miller, Balis & O'Neil in the federal appellate courts:
FERC open-access electric transmission rulemaking. The firm represented the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association and a group of rural electric cooperatives in the consolidated appeals of FERC Order No. 888 in the D.C. Circuit.
FERC open-access gas transportation rulemaking. The firm represented the American Public Gas Association in the consolidated appeals of FERC Order No. 636 in the D.C. Circuit.
Gas pipeline curtailments. The firm represented the City of Mesa, Arizona, and the American Public Gas Association in a successful challenge of FERC orders approving a pipeline's pipeline curtailment plan, on the ground that FERC has not shown that the plan assured continuous access to gas by high-priority end users such as residential consumers and hospitals.
Market power/market-based rates for electricity transmission and sales. The firm represented an electric cooperative in a successful challenge of FERC orders allowing a transmission owning utility the authority to sell electricity to its affiliates at market-based rates and exert market power over purchasers within the transmission-constrained area in which the utility enjoyed a generation monopoly.
Agency ex parte communications. The firm represented municipal electric utilities in working with other parties in a successful challenge to FERC orders allowing FERC to engage in off-the-record ("ex parte") communications with private "market monitors" relating to contested, on-the-record proceedings before FERC.
For more information on Miller, Balis & O'Neil's appellate practice and appellate litigation experience, please contact John P. Gregg or Randolph Lee Elliott.
