Please join us in congratulating Cozen O’Connor as our November highlighted member of the New Jersey Energy Coalition! Below is more information about Cozen O’Connor.

Ranked among the top 100 law firms in the country, Cozen O’Connor has more than 750 attorneys in 27 cities across two continents. A full-service firm with nationally recognized practices in litigation, business law, and government relations, Cozen O’Connor has a strong commitment to the energy and utility industries.

The firm offers a premier state-based utility regulatory practice led by former counsel to the chair of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission. Our team of utility attorneys has the requisite knowledge and relationships to help clients achieve success. When necessary, we draw upon the different disciplines in the firm to provide energy and utility clients with the comprehensive legal services necessary to attain their goals. We represent the full scope of utilities and energy companies, including electricity, natural gas, water and wastewater, steam and chilled water, transportation, and telecommunications service providers. Our attorneys regularly appear before state public utility commissions on our clients’ behalf on a range of matters, such as base rate cases, mergers and acquisitions, certificates of public convenience, fair market valuation, gas and steam cost, distribution system improvement charge, electric and natural gas supplier licensing, formal complaints and investigations, securities registration, management audits, affiliated interest, land use and zoning preemption, transmission line siting, rail-highway crossing, rulemaking, policy-making, and tariff proceedings.

With energy and utility lawyers residing in offices throughout the region, including Cherry Hill and Newark, N.J. as well as Philadelphia, Harrisburg, Washington, D.C., and Houston, our lawyers advise clients on all aspects of the legal and regulatory issues they face, helping clients to navigate some of their most challenging obstacles. Our attorneys draw upon their decades of relevant legal experience, in private practice, as in-house counsel, and as state and federal regulatory agency counsel, and regularly appear before the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU), New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, and the Environmental Protection Agency.

Our attorneys have deep experience with solar, wind energy, hydroelectric, and biofuels, and we regularly represent utility companies, renewable energy developers, manufacturers, investors, lenders, and energy consumers. Cozen O’Connor leads renewable energy projects from start to finish, managing negotiation of sophisticated commercial contracts, pursuit of government incentives, regulatory filings and compliance, federal and state agency outreach, and all aspects of renewable project financing, tax strategy, real estate, land use, and zoning.

With significant energy project development experience, Cozen O’Connor has the capacity to represent entities involved in all aspects of offshore and onshore wind energy project development and operation, including helping to secure regulatory approvals from state public utility commissions, local zoning and land development regulators, state environmental agencies, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Coast Guard, Federal Maritime Commission, Maritime Administration, and the U.S. Bureau of Offshore Energy Management.

Our attorneys are at the forefront of representing wind energy companies in New Jersey and surrounding states, including advising Ørsted, which recently received the state’s first Offshore Renewable Energy Certificate (OREC) by the NJBPU for an offshore wind farm off the coast of Atlantic City.

Our lawyers understand the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead for utilities and energy companies and are skilled at helping clients prepare for and respond to such issues. Cozen O’Connor lawyers advise water, electric, and natural gas utilities as they continue to modernize their aging infrastructures, helping such utilities implement infrastructure investment programs to enhance reliability and safety. Through our representation of both utility and non-utility owned solar projects, our attorneys are well positioned to assist clients with NJBPU’s anticipated transition from a Solar Renewable Energy Certificate (SREC)-based program to a new incentive program. Our representation of electric and gas public utilities and renewable energy developers positions us to provide clients with critical insight and guidance as the utility industry prepares to respond to the NJBPU’s mandate for utilities to transition to 100 percent renewable energy by 2050 and implement carbon neutrality measures.