Title: Synergy in Energy: The New Troutman Pepper Locke
Speakers: Bill Swanstrom and Brandon Marzo
Brandon Marzo (00:07):
Bill, it’s great to see you.
Bill Swanstrom (00:09):
Good to see you. What are you up to?
Brandon Marzo (00:10):
Working on energy law, I think, like we’re both doing. And glad to have you here in Atlanta. I’m excited about the Locke-Troutman merger and really look forward to our two teams combining. Do you want to tell me some things about Locke’s history and their practice in energy law?
Bill Swanstrom (00:29):
Sure. We’ve been doing it for a while — not quite as long as you guys have — but our practice is different from your practice in certain ways. We’re a traditional energy-oriented, hydrocarbon-oriented firm: oil and gas, pipelines, midstream. That’s kind of where we’ve built our reputation over the years.
It’s funny going back a ways — we really did start doing power, but when the Enron, et cetera happened, we quickly pivoted to doing more traditional oil and gas, and that’s worked out really well. In more recent years, we’ve been building back up our renewable side of our practice, as well as some traditional power plant work. We’ve been doing a great job of growing that, but aren’t where we want to be, and hoping that this combination will help us get to where we do want to be on the renewable side.
Brandon Marzo (01:17):
Well, we’re really excited to get to work with you. For Troutman, our history started back in 1897, working with utilities and railway companies that eventually turned into our electric companies — starting off with the Georgia Railway and Electric Company that became Georgia Power Company. Over the years, as Atlanta grew and the Southeast grew, our practice has grown with strong partners like Georgia Power and Southern Company, but also by expanding our client base to more utilities and energy companies.
We continue to grow those practices. We opened the Washington office in the nineties — in ’93 — and have one of the preeminent FERC energy regulatory practices out of our DC office, servicing a number of clients in the FERC world.
As you mentioned, we’re really excited about working with you guys, both because we don’t have an oil and gas practice, but also because you’ve got a strong transactional practice. We’ve got a very strong transactional practice at Troutman as well, and think together that combination will definitely expand our capabilities. We do pretty much full-service transactional work, and so we’re very excited to get the chance to work with the Locke lawyers, who I know have done a lot of transactional work as well, and get into that space.
Tell me something else about your transactional work.
Bill Swanstrom (02:39):
Thank you. We’re very excited about the combined energy practice. It gives us the chance to say to the market that we cover the entire energy market — both hydrocarbons, electricity, the works — and also positions us to tell the market that we are a one-stop shop for energy companies of all types.
On the transactional side, we run the gamut from M&A to commercial contracts, to tax, environmental, and all the things that our clients need to get them to where they want to be on whatever they’re working on. It sounds like you guys have a similar mindset. We grow our geographic footprint on both sides through this combination. We’re excited to have a much bigger footprint in the Southeast, bigger footprint in the Northeast, bigger footprint out in California. We have a large energy presence in the Midwest — mostly in Texas, but including Chicago as well. We have 70 energy lawyers in Texas, mostly in Dallas, Austin, and Houston.
Some of the things we’re best known for is our strong midstream practice. We’re consistently one of the leaders in midstream M&A and midstream commercial work. As the energy transition becomes more of a reality, it’s that midstream piece that really makes a big difference. The same kinds of skill sets required to build carbon capture facilities are also required to build oil and gas pipelines.
Brandon Marzo (04:17):
The energy transition makes this particularly exciting. Looking at our geographic footprint — you talk about Texas, you talk about Chicago — being able to expand more in those areas, particularly through the offices that you have there, is very promising.
One thing I didn’t mention earlier: we have what I believe to be the preeminent state regulatory practice as well, with lawyers across several jurisdictions practicing for our utility clients before state public service commissions. Texas would be a great opportunity for us to expand there. But even more importantly, with the energy transition going on — moving from fossil to more renewable resources, which has been underway for the last decade or decade and a half — that growth is such that our experience dealing with clients on conventional and fossil resources is obviously going to translate extensively to renewable resources. As emerging technologies come about, I think our combined firm will be at the forefront of those technologies and give our clients significant capabilities across not only jurisdictions, but also expertise and knowledge about those types of resources.
Bill Swanstrom (05:29):
Yeah, amen. As you know, we have a Texas state regulatory practice with John Arnold, and he’s the preeminent regulatory attorney in Texas on the gas pipeline side. He’s become the go-to guy over the years, and he’s just fantastic. We’re building a group around him in Texas.
Going back to the energy transition topic, we’re already seeing some opportunities to cross-sell and cross-market between the two firms. One of our partners is helping on a pitch on the hydrogen front with your team. And we just recently got the Troutman team hired on a battery storage project financing in Texas — it’s going to be an exciting project. So we’re already working together and already seeing the things we talked about take shape.
Brandon Marzo (06:23):
Yeah, absolutely. Already working together on a lot of those fronts, and that’s spectacular. It’s an exciting time because we are seeing transformational growth in every region. Texas is seeing it, places where Locke has been traditionally involved are seeing it, and our clients in the Southeast and across the country are seeing load growth that they haven’t seen in quite frankly decades.
The great thing about our geographic footprint and the lawyers we have on the ground is that we are really on the frontline of how to address that. Some of the renewable resources where we have extensive expertise — that have traditionally not gotten as much focus — are coming back. Hydropower, for example: you’re seeing a lot more activity in the hydro world. We’ve got a preeminent hydro practice.
With load growth, a lot of our clients — and I think your clients as well — both on the side of trying to build new generation or emerging technologies, as well as those who are purchasing it and trying to figure out how to meet load growth, are both having to figure out how to do creative deals with each other: partnerships that you just have not seen historically done. You probably have some thoughts on some of those transactions and how those things work.
Bill Swanstrom (07:49):
Absolutely. We’re seeing all kinds of different flavors of transactions, whether it’s trying to do things behind the meter, off-grid, to save electricity costs or just meet demand. What a lot of people don’t appreciate, with all the excitement about AI, is just how much electricity that takes. That’s driving a lot of the load growth. AI needs 24/7 reliability, so you can’t have intermittent power be the sole source of electricity for those projects. It’s just creating a lot of new opportunities that we’re excited about.
Brandon Marzo (08:31):
I think you’re absolutely right. We’ve talked a lot about generation, but I’d also be remiss not to mention the amount of transmission projects that our lawyers have been involved with and worked on with clients, which will also be a big part of meeting the significant load growth. AI is spread out across the country and in some cases has to interact with itself, so transmission utilities being able to serve and get to generation in order to meet those needs is going to be significant. We’ve got a great platform, and I think the combined firm together will have an even better platform to deal with those types of issues our clients are having. So it’s an exciting time.
Bill Swanstrom (09:09):
Completely agree. This has been a great combination for us, and we’re excited to be working together now and having our teams on the ground be able to work together. I assume you feel the same.
Brandon Marzo (09:23):
Absolutely. All the things that we talked about and thought would work — we’re already seeing that all work wonderfully now that we’re combined together, and looking forward to doing it for many years to come.
Bill Swanstrom (09:35):
Absolutely. Well, it’s great, Bill — and we’re now partners.
Brandon Marzo (09:40):
Amen.
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