Vera Callahan Neinast’s practice focuses on the federal and state regulation of the natural gas, oil and electricity industries.
Ms. Neinast has represented interstate and intrastate natural gas pipelines, natural gas marketers, oil pipelines and an independent power producer in all aspects of rate, tariff and certificate proceedings before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and in appeals before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. She has extensive experience in all phases of administrative litigation, including initial case strategy, preparation of applications and testimony, discovery, settlement negotiations and drafting of settlement documents, presentation and cross-examination of witnesses at administrative hearings, and pre- and post-hearing briefs. Ms. Neinast has represented interstate pipelines and marketers in natural gas import and export proceedings before the U.S. Department of Energy. She also has broad experience before the Texas Railroad Commission on intrastate pipeline rate- and service-related issues, and has represented clients before the Public Utility Commission of Texas and FERC on various electric issues. Ms. Neinast also has Texas state court litigation experience in oil and gas production matters.
Ms. Neinast’s experience includes—
- representing an interstate pipeline in all aspects of construction approval for a pipeline lateral, including environmental compliance
- serving as regulatory counsel for a major natural gas storage field constructed near Katy, Texas
- counseling interstate and intrastate pipelines on regulatory compliance on a variety of NGPA Section 311 issues related to transportation, storage, and parking and lending matters
- advising a major hotel chain regarding negotiation of natural gas and electricity supply contracts
- advising bondholders in a bankruptcy proceeding on various Federal Power Act issues
- performing regulatory due diligence related to the acquisition or refinancing of QFs, oil pipelines and intrastate gas pipelines
- participating in technical conferences convened by the U.S.-Canada Power System Outage Task Force to investigate the August 14, 2003, power outages
- counseling oil pipelines and shippers on Interstate Commerce Act matters
- drafting comments on a variety of natural gas rulemakings at FERC
- negotiating and drafting settlements in major rate proceedings before the FERC
- drafting appellate briefs to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
- drafting open access tariffs for interstate pipelines to include procedures for Gas industry Standards Board (now NAESB) compliance
- representing natural gas marketers in interstate gas pipeline rate proceedings.
Before joining Akin Gump, Ms. Neinast spent 12 years practicing energy regulatory law in the Washington, D.C., office of another law firm, where she was a shareholder. Her previous legal experience includes two years as a staff attorney at the FERC in Washington, D.C., and two years as a law clerk for the U.S. Tax Court. Ms. Neinast also taught business and business law at Northern Virginia Community College.
Ms. Neinast received her B.A. summa cum laude in English from Wright State University in 1977 and her J.D. from the Ohio State University College of Law in 1980. She is a member of the Texas and District of Columbia bars.