Katharine M. Mapes

Overview

Katie represents a variety of public-sector clients on energy matters, focusing on litigation before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and state utility commissions. Katie advises clients on ratemaking and market design issues, particularly in the California ISO. She has extensive experience in both settlement negotiations and litigation at FERC, and is accustomed to filing complaints and similar proceedings before the agency. She helps clients negotiate their relationship with investor owned utilities and with regulatory authorities. She is also experienced in guiding clients through the FERC hydroelectric licensing process.

Katie is also experienced in appellate litigation, both in FERC cases and in other administrative matters. In addition, she has taken on high-profile pro bono work, dealing with cutting-edge constitutional issues, including the emoluments clause of the Constitution, the relationship of defamation suits to the First Amendment, and whether federal agencies are constitutionally structured.

Prior to joining Spiegel, Katie worked as a law clerk for the Honorable Roslyn O. Silver, federal district judge for the District of Arizona, where she participated in the decision-making process at all stages of federal civil litigation and drafted numerous judicial opinions.

Practice Focus

Electric, environment and energy, hydro and water, telecommunications, transportation, utility workforce and litigation and appeals.

Noteworthy

Katie has been named as a “Rising Star” for 2015–2019 by Super Lawyers.

Representative Matters

As FERC counsel for several large municipal utilities in California, Katie was a key player in both the litigation of, and settlement negotiations concerning, a series of Pacific Gas and Electric Company transmission rate cases. Katie’s clients received millions of dollars in refunds under the settlement agreements achieved in these proceedings, and are poised to receive additional millions of dollars in benefits as a result of FERC’s decision on the litigation. Pacific Gas & Electric Co., 173 FERC ¶ 61,045 (2000).
Katie was part of the team that successfully appealed FERC’s grant of a large return–on-equity incentive to a California utility. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals remanded the matter to FERC, where it remains pending. Depending on the outcome, California ratepayers could receive past refunds and a going forward rate decrease in excess of $50 million each year. California Public Utilities Commission v. FERC, 879 F.3d 966 (9th Cir. 2018).
On behalf of three Northern California entities, Katie was part of the team that successfully challenged a U.S. Bureau of Reclamation interpretation of the Central Valley Project Improvement Act that would have allowed the Bureau to impose disproportionate environmental remediation costs on CVP power contractors. Northern California Power Agency v. United States, 942 F.3d 1091 (Fed. Cir. 2019).
Katie was the principal author of a pro bono brief filed on behalf of a number of distinguished legal scholars addressing the relationship between defamation suits and the First Amendment. Gilmore v. Jones, 370 F. Supp. 3d 630 (W.D. Va.2019). The brief was later the subject of an article published in The New York Times. Certain of the other amicus briefs she has authored have been cited in Supreme Court majority opinions and dissenting opinions. See, e.g., Artis v. D.C., 134 S. Ct. 594 (2018); FERC v. Electric Power Supply Association, 136 S. Ct. 760 (2016).

Overview

Practice Focus

Noteworthy

Representative Matters

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