Sean Atkins' practice is focused on energy law, including federal and state regulation of electric utilities. He has extensive experience with legal and policy issues related to wholesale electricity markets, transmission planning and operations, and generator interconnections. Sean obtained approvals for new transmission planning procedures designed to facilitate the needs of renewable power. He served as chair of a working group of counsel representing utilities in the northeastern United States that successfully formed a regional transmission organization and attained incentive transmission rates.
Sean represents clients in administrative and appellate litigation and negotiates settlements of complex matters before utility regulators. He advises clients on the development of effective compliance programs and a variety of regulatory compliance issues.
Sean is part of Alston & Bird’s renewable energy practice, which focuses on a wide range of legal, regulatory, environmental and business challenges facing renewable power developers.
Prior to entering private practice, Sean served as a law clerk in the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Office of Administrative Law Judges.
Sean received his J.D. in 1996 and his B.A. in 1991, both from the University of Virginia. He is listed in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business.
- Counsel to one of the largest independent transmission system operators for federal regulatory matters.
- Counsel to an investor-owned utility with one of the largest electricity transmission and distribution networks in the northeastern United States.
- Counsel to developers of wind and solar generation projects across the United States.
- Litigated the terms of a new wholesale electricity market design for an independent system operator in the western United States.
- Negotiated the terms under which an independent system operator in the eastern United States assumed operational control over a high-voltage direct current interconnection with a foreign country.
- Negotiated the resolution of contract claims and stakeholder concerns related to the formation of a regional transmission organization.
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June 7, 2012
In the Press
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July 5, 2011
In the Press
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June 11, 2010
In the Press
Past Events
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February 10, 2011
Seminar
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September 15-17, 2008
Seminar
- Energy Bar Association
- American Wind Energy Association