ATLANTA – March 18, 2010 – Troutman Sanders announced today it will open an office in Portland, Ore., with the addition of three new partners there.
 
Troutman Sanders, an international law firm with 680 attorneys, plans to open the office in April in downtown Portland. The office will be the firm’s 16th and marks the latest in a string of strategic expansions by Troutman Sanders.

The Portland office will be led by Lara L. Skidmore, a Troutman Sanders partner who will become the office’s first managing partner. She will be joined by two additional partners, Matthew D. McVee and Antoine P. Cobb.

The office will focus initially on assisting electric and natural gas utilities and the dynamic renewable energy industry, drawing upon the expertise of Troutman Sanders’ nationally renowned Energy practice. All three partners have considerable experience in utility and regulatory-related matters; McVee currently is general counsel for the Western Electricity Coordinating Council and Cobb was manager of federal regulation for Arizona Public Service Company.

“We have had our eye on Portland and the Pacific Northwest for some time because of the region’s high concentration of utilities and related agencies, and because of the significant renewable energy development throughout the Western U.S.,” said Robert W. Webb Jr., chairman and managing partner of Troutman Sanders. “Portland provides us with a great opportunity to expand our Energy practice, which will instantly become the region’s largest with access to our more than 130 lawyers whose practices focus primarily on servicing clients in the energy industry worldwide.”

Troutman Sanders already has offices in San Diego and Orange County, Calif., “but needed to be closer to key clients in the Pacific Northwest,” said Webb. The law firm counsels numerous U.S. electric and natural gas utilities on every facet of state, federal and international energy laws and regulations, as well as on all aspects of industry operations, financing, contracting, corporate structuring and M&A.

Troutman Sanders’ Energy practice has served clients in the energy business since the 1920s with a substantial number of energy practitioners in each of the firm’s offices in Washington, D.C., New York, Atlanta and Richmond, Va. The firm’s long-standing familiarity with the industry – and its cutting-edge representations over the years – has made the Energy practice a leading provider of legal services to the energy and utility industries worldwide.

The Energy practice is highly rated by Chambers USA and BTI Consulting Group, which twice has ranked the firm’s utilities practice as No. 1 in the United States. Troutman Sanders also has a substantial and highly regarded renewable energy practice, and the firm is a founding member of the US Partnership for Renewable Energy Finance (US PREF), a group of financial institutions and thought leaders that serves as an educational resource for those shaping renewable energy policy in federal government agencies and Congress.

Skidmore, 40, joined Troutman Sanders in 2007. Prior to that, she worked at Pacific Power from 2003-2007, where she served as associate general counsel, and was a staff attorney for Bonneville Power Administration from 1994-2003. She is a graduate of Oregon State University and Lewis & Clark Law School.

Skidmore will manage the new Troutman Sanders Portland office while focusing her practice on representing electric utilities on transmission, interconnection and compliance matters, working with a major renewable energy developer on integration of renewable resources, and representing utilities before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and Bonneville Power Administration.

“We’re excited about our entry into the Portland market and in becoming a new member of the city’s dynamic business community,” said Skidmore.

As general counsel for the Western Electricity Coordinating Council – a regional forum for promoting electric service reliability in Western Canada and the Western U.S. – McVee has advised the council on compliance with the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), FERC and regional policies, monitored government compliance, and built and managed the council’s legal department.

McVee, 40, also served as legal counsel to PacifiCorp and was an administrative attorney for the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada. He is a graduate of Lewis & Clark College and Lewis & Clark Law School.

At Troutman Sanders, McVee will focus his practice on the growing field of electric reliability compliance, as well as on regional transmission planning processes. He will counsel clients on, among other things, reliability standards development and compliance, critical infrastructure protection and transactions.

Cobb, 39, most recently was manager of federal regulation for Arizona Public Service Company, where he managed the company’s regulatory image and FERC policy positions. In that role, he oversaw the filing and successful implementation of a formulaic transmission rate process for the company. He previously worked as a senior regulatory attorney for Pinnacle West Capital Corporation (the parent company of Arizona Public Service), and as an associate in Troutman Sanders’ Washington, D.C., office from 1997-2003.
 
As a partner at Troutman Sanders, Cobb will focus on regulatory issues affecting the electric utility industry, primarily before FERC. He will counsel clients on, among other things, transmission service policy and compliance issues, as well as power sales regulatory issues. 

About Troutman Sanders:
Troutman Sanders LLP is an international law firm with more than 650 lawyers and 16 offices in North America, Europe and Asia. Founded in 1897, the firm’s lawyers provide counsel and advice in practically every aspect of civil and commercial law related to the firm’s core practice areas: Corporate, Finance, Litigation, Public Law and Real Estate. Firm clients range from multinational corporations to individual entrepreneurs, federal and state agencies to foreign governments, and non-profit organizations to businesses representing virtually every sector and industry. See troutmansanders.com for more information. Learn more about the firm’s Renewable Energy practice at https://www.renewableinsights.com