Larry F. Eisenstat

Energy

Larry served as lead counsel on numerous administrative and judicial proceedings before federal and state courts and administrative agencies. He counseled independent power producers, regulated utilities, marketers, financial institutions, distributed generation, storage and smart grid providers, trade associations, and large energy consumers on transmission and interconnection, power supply and planning, and market design, trading, and restructuring issues. He also served as project counsel for both conventional and renewable power plants and transmission projects throughout North America. He counseled clients on mergers, asset acquisitions and sales, and in negotiations and litigations regarding virtually all aspects of electric infrastructure development and operations, utility solicitations, contract disputes, transmission planning, market access, market power and power marketing issues, market monitoring, compliance and enforcement matters, and efforts to develop regional transmission organizations, independent system operators, and transmission companies. Larry had successfully represented numerous electric power suppliers in all manner of traditional and ancillary rate proceedings and investigations, including the first affiliated power producer to receive market-based rate authority from the FERC.

Complex Commercial Litigation

Prior to his work in the energy field, Larry litigated construction, eminent domain, trade secret, First Amendment, and other disputes, and counseled clients on matters related to threatened and pending criminal prosecutions. Most of these proceedings involved highly technical and financially complex commercial transactions that required sophisticated damage and other economic analyses.

Antitrust

Larry has participated in civil and criminal antitrust proceedings and unfair competition matters in federal and state courts, and has negotiated dispositions with the U.S. Department of Justice related to price-fixing claims, consent decrees, and a variety of investigations, including many that arose out of the California meltdown and concerning both eastern and western electric power and gas markets. He began his career representing various telecommunication concerns in proceedings related to the AT&T divestiture decree.

Recognitions

Public Utilities Fortnightly listed Larry in its first-ever hotlist of "Groundbreaking Lawyers" following a Fortnightly survey of in-house counsel, public utility commissions, and trade associations. Also since 2005, Larry has been ranked in Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business in the Energy area. Chambers ranks Larry as a band-2 attorney, describing him as a "premier energy regulatory lawyer" who "provides strategic legal advice," is "very sharp" and an "effective litigator." He has also been described as "well known throughout the industry for his 'sophisticated understanding' of both the legal and business issues facing energy companies" and as "well versed in FERC transmission issues, including policy, FERC compliance and other regulatory processes." The 2011 guide describes him as a "confident and appropriately aggressive litigator," noted for his enforcement and compliance work. Previous editions of Chambers refer to Larry as "a skilled and tenacious litigator with a great depth of understanding of the independent power business, from transmission and interconnection to siting and development," "excellent at keeping clients out of trouble, and a good bet for gloves-off litigation," "the one you want in your corner when things get sticky," "the perfect man for any negotiation or adversarial scenario... [he] understands his client's objectives and then applies his exceptional market knowledge to make it happen," and whose "strengths include a 'proactive and strategic business mind' and the ability to be a 'master of the extracurricular, political side of the game.'" Larry also has been consistently recognized as a leading lawyer by Chambers Global. In 2016, 2017, 2019, and 2020, Chambers Global listed him as a band-1 attorney in the category of USA, Energy: Electricity (Regulatory & Litigation).

In addition, he has been nominated by in-house counsel and his peers to be included in the Guide to the World's Leading Energy Attorneys as one of the outstanding practitioners in the United States. Larry is included in Legal 500: The Client's Guide to the U.S. Legal Profession and multiple editions of The Best Lawyers in America, as well as The Best Lawyers in Washington, D.C. 

Larry was profiled in Law360's MVP award series, a distinction extended only to 92 attorneys nationwide across 16 practice areas. He was also recognized in Washington D.C. Super Lawyers and Lawdragon's 500 Leading Lawyers in America, noting that Larry's "creative solutions to complex regulatory, project development and finance, and litigation problems put him heads above the rest in energy." He also has been named in Lawdragon's "New Stars, New Worlds," which profiles the "freshest faces in American law." Larry was listed in the 13th edition of the Energy and Environment Expert Guide, and was listed in the "Best of the Best USA" from Expert Guides. Larry was listed in Euromoney's Guide to the World's Leading Energy and Natural Resources Attorneys.