OF COUNSEL | bill@mrg-law.com | 503 290 3625

BILL MAGNESS

Bill’s practice focuses on energy and telecommunications law, with an emphasis on regulatory, litigation, policy, and business advice to regulated companies. 

LEGAL EXPERIENCE

Prior to joining McDowell Rackner Gibson in 2023, Bill spent over twenty years focused on administrative litigation and appeals. He was lead counsel in cases before utility regulators in sixteen states and served as appellate counsel for cases in several federal circuits. Bill has also served as a general counsel in telecommunications and energy companies, and as the Chief Executive Officer of an electric independent system operator.

REPRESENTATIVE WORK

  • As General Counsel, represented the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, Inc. (ERCOT) in all aspects of its business and regulatory matters before state regulators and state and federal courts. His work also included managing ERCOT’s corporate governance, regulatory compliance, and corporate risk management (2010-2016).

  • Successfully prepared a petition for certiorari for a U.S. Supreme Court case interpreting the federal Telecommunications Act of 1996. The Court’s decision resolved a circuit split on a key issue favorably for Bill’s competitive telecommunications provider client (2010).

  • Represented a coalition of telecommunications companies in multi-state administrative litigation and associated appeals involving state commission hearings in eight states conducted on an accelerated schedule (2005).

  • Testified on energy and telecommunications matters before state legislative bodies, Congressional committees, and federal district and bankruptcy courts (1995-2022).

  • Served as a senior consultant for the U.S. Department of Energy Grid Deployment Office and Loan Programs Office (2021-2022).

  • Was lead trial counsel in numerous criminal jury trials as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Detroit (1990-1992).

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

  • Member of the Oregon, Washington, Texas, and Massachusetts State Bars.

  • President of the State Bar of Texas Public Utility Law Section (2002-2003).

  • Member of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) Members Representative Committee (2016-2021).

  • Member of the Texas Electric Grid Security Council (2020-2021).

EDUCATION

Bill graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 1984, with highest honors in the University’s Plan II Liberal Arts Honors Program.  He was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and was employed on political campaigns and at the Texas Department of Agriculture.

Bill graduated from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1987. He spent his third year of law school as a Visiting Student at Harvard Law School. Bill was an Editor of the University of Pennsylvania Law Review.   

COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES

Bill is active in various public interest organizations.  His work has included representing indigent defendants as appointed counsel in federal criminal matters, working with a nonprofit to draft wills for terminally ill patients who could not afford legal assistance, and supporting fundraising efforts for food banks and legal aid organizations.