John Lee Shepherd, Jr., former Director of Legal Policy at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, has joined Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP as a partner in the firm’s nationally recognized energy and infrastructure team. Based in Washington, Shepherd’s energy regulatory practice will focus on rulemaking proceedings, litigation, investigations and appeals.
Shepherd joined FERC in 2018 as its leading policy lawyer and served as the principal legal advisor to agency leadership on the implementation of policy through adjudication, rulemaking, and judicial review, with a particular emphasis on issues surrounding electric and capacity market design, transmission incentives and cost allocation, pipeline certification, Mobile-Sierra issues, waivers, and bankruptcy.
His responsibilities also included drafting orders and facilitating negotiations among commissioners, managing external litigation and coordinating positions with other federal agencies, drafting briefs and arguing cases in matters before the Supreme Court, appellate courts, district courts, and bankruptcy courts.
“The unique insight and experience John brings to the firm as the top policy lawyer at FERC, coupled with his nearly two decades of experience in private practice handing a wide range of energy regulatory matters, make him an ideal fit for our global energy team,” said Jeffrey P. Schroeder, head of Hunton Andrews Kurth’s energy and infrastructure team. “John is an outstanding lawyer who is dedicated to professionalism and providing outstanding client service. We are pleased to welcome him to the firm.”
Prior to joining FERC, Shepherd was a counsel in the energy litigation group at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, having joined the firm in 2000, following his clerkship with D.C. Circuit Judge A. Raymond Randolph. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Yale University and his law degree from Duke University School of Law.
Between college and law school, Shepherd served as a legislative aide in the Alaska state senate while teaching at the University of Alaska and training for the U.S. Army. Over the course of his 20-year career with the Army, Shepherd achieved the rank of Major and was deployed four times, including during Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Noble Eagle and Operation Enduring Freedom.
Shepherd is among several recent additions to Hunton Andrews Kurth’s energy and infrastructure team. In November, international nuclear power projects attorney George Borovas joined the firm in Tokyo. Last June, the firm added project finance attorneys James D. Simpson, Jr. and Jason B. Parker in London and Martin A. Skehill in Dubai.
Hunton Andrews Kurth’s global energy and infrastructure team provides comprehensive finance, development, and infrastructure counsel to regulated and unregulated power companies and utilities, distributors and transportation companies, independent electric transmission companies, and others involved in the renewable energy, oil, gas, LNG, petrochemical, and nuclear industries. Lawyers in our energy regulatory practice represent clients across the energy and utility spectrum throughout the country. Our clients include electric utilities, independent system operators (ISOs) and regional transmission organizations (RTOs), independent power producers, and lenders, as well as natural gas utilities, storage companies, natural gas and oil pipeline companies, and midstream companies.
