Attorney Profile: Seth Hilton

Transcript

My name is Seth Hilton. I am a partner in our energy development group, and I also head up our energy industry group as well.

What inspired you to become an attorney?

I think it was really my father who was also an attorney, and he just loved practicing law. He loved the idea of helping his clients succeed and so I think I got that from him.

Why did you choose renewable energy law?

I am involved in the energy regulatory space in California, and I started off first during the California energy crisis back in 2000. Trying to figure out a solution to that crisis initially attracted me to the area. I think what continues to fascinate me about this particular area is that given climate change and kind of this existential crisis we are in, I feel like this is the opportunity for us to really change the future of the planet. We are involved in issues that will really make a difference for humanity going forward.

And what trends are you seeing?

In California where I am focused, the trend that I see is that we are anticipating bringing online just massive amounts of renewable energy. The California Public Utilities Commission just released some new modeling they had done in the last month, and they are projecting about almost 100 gigawatts of new resources to come online within the next 10 to 15 years.

What does success look like for your clients?

From a regulatory perspective, and I also work with the state legislature occasionally, what success means for my clients is structuring a competitive playing field where they have the opportunity to succeed with their particular projects or developments. That is really where there are opportunities for these new technologies to come online. That is what success is.

What insights are you seeing driving clients’ decisions?

I think for my clients and for resource developers in California, because we are developing so many of these resources and there is so much competition for land, for transmission and interconnection access and those types of things, it has become increasingly important to manage the regulatory process and the legislative process to ensure that these projects have the opportunity to develop. I think from Stoel Rives’ perspective, we need to keep clients informed about what is going on in the regulatory space, what may be coming up on the legislative side, and helping clients craft strategies to deal with those developments and be successful.