Mark F. Sundback
Partner
msundback@andrewskurth.com
Suite 1100
Washington D.C. 20005
P: 202.662.2755
F: 202.974.9519
Download v-cardMark is a partner in the Energy Section of the Washington, D.C. office. Since 1981 he has been extensively engaged in the representation of energy industry participants before federal and state agencies charged with jurisdiction over energy markets and their participants. His representations have focused on the rates, terms, and conditions associated with gaining access to regulated energy transmission systems, transactions involving changes in ownership of jurisdictional assets, and unbundling matters. Particularly, Mark’s practice includes a wide array of issues under the Natural Gas Act, the Federal Power Act, and related federal and state statutes involving the regulation of energy industry participants.
He has been involved in counseling and representing before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission multiple merchants of electric power in the Southeast U.S., and New England. He is defending entities doing business in the California and the Pacific Northwest that have been accused of charging rates for electricity and capacity inconsistent with the standards of the FPA. He also has appeared before the regulatory commissions of numerous states on behalf of end users and coalitions of market participants.
His work frequently requires the integration of both transactional and regulatory goals. Over the past three years, Mark has forged durable, commercially-resilient agreements to transactional and regulatory disputes arising between energy market participants. Some of the disputes had been underway for 10 years before resolution. In like fashion, Mark has addressed commercial challenges in negotiating arrangements for new projects, allocating capacity, and designing and implementing open seasons with creative, commercially-viable solutions.
Representative Experience
Pipelines
- Served in first chair capacity involving on the record proceedings for pipelines in over a dozen NGA Section 4 proceedings involving rates, and has represented other market participants in rate cases as well
- Has counseled and litigated cases involving innovative pipeline project transactions, including interconnection disputes, contested certificate matters, issues arising from pipeline facilities shared by two pipelines and financing
- Litigated seminal cases involving application of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to oil and natural gas pipelines
- Advises/counsels regarding transactions
Electric
- Successfully represented entities engaged in generation and marketing against ISO claims in arbitration
- Involved in Commission proceedings in numerous states, including California, Pennsylvania, Texas, Florida and Maryland
- Served as chief energy regulatory counsel in numerous bankruptcy proceedings, including for bankrupt electric generators and their creditors
- International energy arbitrations involving pricing of natural gas supplies and power plant fuels
Pipelines & Electric
- Reorganizations/restructuring of regulated energy enterprises
Briefings, Seminars & Speeches
Anti-Market Manipulation Rules Under FERC Order No. 670
Briefings, Seminars & Speeches
- Anti-Market Manipulation Rules Under FERC Order No. 670 (April 19, 2007)
Professional / Civic Affiliations
Member
- Federal Energy Bar Association
Honors and Listings
- Profiled as one of the leading Energy lawyers in Chambers USA, America's Leading Business Lawyers (2005)
- Profiled as one of the leading Energy lawyers in Chambers USA, America's Leading Business Lawyers (2006)
- Profiled as one of the U.S.A.'s leading Energy lawyers in Chambers Global (2006)
- Profiled as one of the leading Energy lawyers in Chambers USA, America's Leading Business Lawyers (2007)
- Pofiled as on the U.S.A.'s leading Energy lawyers in Chambers Global (2007)
- Profiled in Legal Media Groups Expert Gudies, Energy and Natural Resource Attorneys
Rated
- "AV" Martindale-Hubbell Peer Review Rating, indicating "very high to preeminent" legal ability
Headline News
- Andrews Kurth Receives High Rankings in Chambers USA Guide (June 25, 2007)
- Andrews Kurth Adds to its 2005 Chambers USA Ranking (June 16, 2005)
Industries
Practice Areas
Education
- JD, 1981, Columbia University School of Law, Editor, Columbia Journal of Transnational Law
- BA, 1978, Dickinson College, magna cum laude, Omicron Delta Kappa, William Lenox Avis Prize
Admitted
- District of Columbia 1981
- US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit
- US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
- US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
- US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
