Metropolitan News-Enterprise

 

Wednesday, October 23, 2002

 

Page 3

 

Seasoned Regulatory Litigator Returns to O’Melveny & Myers as Partner

 

By a MetNews Staff Writer

 

A utility regulation specialist has returned to the Los Angeles office of O’Melveny & Myers as a partner after an absence of three years, the firm announced yesterday.

Charlie Read, who received his law degree from UCLA, resigned from O’Melveny in 1999, 16 years after he became a partner there.  He rejoined the firm on Monday after leaving his partnership position at Steptoe & Johnson in Washington, D.C.

Read, who represents Verizon, the owners of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline system and others, specializes in representing public utilities. Since 1996, his principal clients have been Southern California Edison Company and Edison Mission Energy.

The regulatory litigator said he chose to return to California at the urging of several clients.  

The recent energy crisis in California “definitely” played a role in his decision, Read said. The crisis has made “California issues of paramount importance” for companies like Edison.

Although Read referred to Steptoe as a “very fine firm with excellent lawyers,” he said that his previous employer did not have the same “size and wide practice capabilities in California” as O’Melveny.  It was for this reason that he chose to rejoin O’Melveny rather than move to Steptoe’s Los Angeles office.

Mark Wood, a partner at O’Melveny and the head of the firm’s Litigation Department, noted the need for specialists, including regulatory experts like Read, who has handled proceedings before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and public utilities commissions in California, Hawaii, Washington and other states.

 

Copyright 2002, Metropolitan News Company