Coffin Renner LLP

Firm Details:
web: www.crtxlaw.com
Tel: 512 879 0900
Fax: 512 879 0912

Managing Partner: Ann Coffin
Number of partners: 5
Number of lawyers: 8
Languages: English, Spanish

Firm Overview:
Formed in 2009, Coffin Renner excels in the representation of investor-owned electric transmission and distribution utilities, electric cooperatives, water and telecommunications utilities, intrastate natural gas pipelines, common carriers of natural gas liquids and crude petroleum, and natural gas distribution utilities before municipalities and state regulatory agencies, including the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT), Railroad Commission of Texas (RCT), Arkansas Public Service Commission (APSC), the Texas State Office of Administrative Hearings (SOAH), and Texas courts.

The in-agency experience of the firm’s lawyers includes service as a PUCT Director of Enforcement, PUCT Assistant General Counsel, Railroad Commission of Texas Administrative Law Judges, SOAH Master Administrative Law Judge, and head of SOAH’s Public Utility Team.

Additionally, many of the Coffin Renner lawyers have large firm backgrounds, and in some cases, have practiced together throughout their careers. The firm provides their clients not only with a unique concentration of lawyers with a depth of experience in utility law, but also a commitment and dedication to quality work product.
Coffin Renner is certified as a Women’s Business Enterprise by the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council, the nation’s largest certifier of businesses owned and operated by women in the U.S.

Main Areas of Practice: 

Utility Ratemaking
Coffin Renner’s attorneys have over 100 years of combined experience representing electric utilities, natural gas utilities, water utilities, and pipeline clients in ratemaking proceedings before regulators in Texas, Arkansas, and New Mexico. The firm’s clients range from Fortune 200 companies to small privately owned and managed utilities. The firm routinely represents clients in matters ranging from full cost-of-service base rate cases to more discrete rate modification filings, including annual cost of service adjustments, fuel and gas cost adjustments, energy efficiency cases, and annual filings to recover incremental capital investment.

Certificate of Convenience and Necessity Amendments and Approvals
Coffin Renner adeptly assists clients in navigating the regulatory approval process surrounding large capital projects, including electric transmission line construction and generation. With experience across the utility spectrum, the firm’s attorneys are uniquely positioned to anticipate potential issues and craft creative solutions to secure the recovery of substantial capital investment and reduce business risk for their utility clients.

Wholesale and Retail Water Regulation
Whether the client is a wholesale water distributor providing water to over 20 cities and 2 million retail customers or a local water distribution company with less than 10,000 customers, Coffin Renner’s attorneys are intimately familiar with the challenges faced by water utilities on a day-to-day basis. The firm’s attorneys assist water utilities in rate matters, complex contract negotiations, arbitrations, and sales-transfer-merger applications. As water continues to become a more precious resource, the firm serves as a ready resource for the increasingly complex issues faced by their water utility clients.

Utility Sales-Transfer-Merger Proceedings
Coffin Renner’s participation in these industry-defining cases ranges from the representation of clients in proceedings to acquire large investor-owned electric utilities, as well as entire water systems. Whether it involves shepherding an application through the regulatory approval process or advising a client on the potential regulatory risks associated with a contemplated utility sale or merger, the firm’s experience and expertise plays a key role in assisting clients with making successful and strategic acquisitions.

Regulatory Appeals
Coffin Renner’s representation of electric, natural gas, and water clients does not stop at the agency level. The firm has successfully represented utilities in administrative appeals before Texas District Courts, Texas Appeals Courts, and the Supreme Court of Texas.

Pipelines and Deregulation
The Texas energy market is diverse and Coffin Renner’s experience with issues faced by this market reflects that diversity. The firm represents a diverse array of market participants, including pipelines transporting product across the state and utilities delivering gas to the burner tip in customer homes. Whether the issue is economic, safety or reliability related, they work closely with their clients to protect their interests. In the same vein, as Texas electric and telecommunications utilities have navigated the waters and consequences of deregulation, Coffin Renner’s attorneys have been seated at the table helping clients solve problems and achieve successful results.