Morgan, Lewis eyes European expansion

With its options for growth in the U.S. constrained, Center City's Morgan, Lewis & Bockius L.L.P. is seeking to expand its nuclear-regulatory practice in Europe.

The law firm has announced the hiring of a top energy attorney in London and has been meeting with government agencies and private-sector energy companies in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East to expand its nuclear practice, currently composed of 32 lawyers. The firm hopes to grow that by 20 percent within two years.

Among Morgan's top European clients is EDF Energy, which selected Morgan to shepherd its application to build the United Kingdom's first new reactor in 20 years.

EDF owns and operates 58 nuclear-energy plants in France, and it is expanding into the British market.

Morgan Lewis is a dominant player in the nuclear-regulatory area in the United States, representing two-thirds of the current applicants for new reactors, some 20 proposed facilities in all.

But its rapid expansion in the U.S. nuclear-regulatory field has started to close off new avenues for growth here.

Professional rules allow the firm to take on only so many U.S. clients before it finds itself having to turn down others to avoid potential conflicts of interest. Practice leader Jay Gutierrez, a former regional counsel based in King of Prussia for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said that point was fast approaching for Morgan Lewis.

The firm also recently lost a large amount of work when the Obama administration called off development of a high-level radioactive waste-disposal site at Yucca Mountain about 100 miles from Las Vegas. That effectively ended a five-year, $50 million engagement the firm had with the Department of Energy to guide its application to develop the site through the regulatory process.

"Our ability to grow further [in the U.S.] is not boundless," Gutierrez said of the conflict issue. "We are doing quite well here, but we already have the lion's share of the work."

Gutierrez said the impetus for choosing to expand the nuclear-practice group stemmed largely from the multilateral Kyoto accords and the recent negotiations in Copenhagen among world leaders over how to limit greenhouse gases. Absent the use of nuclear power, it will be impossible to limit carbon dioxide emissions, Gutierrez said.

"The only way you are going to get there is by reducing the use of fossil fuels and replacing it with something else," he said.

Morgan's energy practice has headquarters in Washington, but Gutierrez said he anticipated that much of the firm's international nuclear work would be done out of its 25-lawyer London office.

The firm announced Thursday that it had recruited Susan Quint, formerly the top lawyer for British Nuclear Fuels Limited, a state-owned nuclear-energy-services company that manufactured fuels and ran reactors until it was dismantled last year, its component parts spun off to other corporations.

Morgan built the largest U.S. nuclear-energy practice largely by betting that the industry would rebound after a long fallow period brought on by the catastrophes at Three Mile Island in 1979 and Chernobyl in 1986.

When the Bush administration, in response to surging power demand, called for increased reliance on nuclear power, Morgan was well-positioned.

Gutierrez said a similar trend appeared to be developing overseas. The British government has identified 10 sites as potential spots for reactors, and the major political parties support the initiative.

While the loss of the Yucca Mountain work was a setback, Gutierrez said, the practice is busy enough to absorb the loss.

"It was a nice assignment, but it hasn't materially affected our practice," Gutierrez said. "We haven't laid anyone off."