Baker Donelson's Water Utilities Team brings together a diverse and cross-disciplinary group of attorneys to effectively serve investor-owned water and wastewater utility clients nationally. Our team's integrated perspective enables us to deliver practical, business minded solutions that reflect how utilities operate – helping clients manage risk, advance projects, and meet regulatory expectations while continuing to provide reliable service to the communities they serve. We represent utility clients in high-stakes litigation, including eminent domain actions and environmental litigation, as well as regulatory matters.
As a full-service law firm, we offer water utility clients the benefit of working with one team, regardless of jurisdiction or legal issue. In addition to regulatory and litigation services, our attorneys counsel clients across a variety of matters, including acquisitions, labor and employment, environmental and crisis response, data privacy and cybersecurity, and government contracts.
Regulatory
We advise water and wastewater utilities operating in highly regulated environments, helping clients navigate the complex and evolving regulatory frameworks that govern rates, service obligations, infrastructure investment, and system expansion. Our attorneys regularly work alongside utility leadership and technical teams to address regulatory strategy, compliance obligations, and agency engagement at the state and local levels.
We understand the practical realities utilities face when balancing regulatory requirements with operational needs, capital planning, and long-term system reliability. This experience allows us to provide guidance that is not only legally sound but also aligned with how utilities operate and make decisions in a regulated marketplace.
Our regulatory work is further strengthened by our attorneys' longstanding professional relationships with utility commissions and public service commissions across our footprint. These relationships provide insight into regulatory expectations, priorities, and processes, enabling us to help clients engage more effectively with regulators and anticipate issues before they arise. We also provide government relations support to assist utilities as they address legislative, policy, and stakeholder considerations that affect their operations and strategic objectives.
Eminent Domain and Condemnation Litigation
In addition to our regulatory experience, our extensive condemnation and eminent domain litigation work provides a perspective that goes beyond traditional regulatory representation. Through this work, we gain direct insight into utility operations, asset planning, infrastructure constraints, valuation, and the business considerations that drive real-world decision-making. Over the past two decades, Baker Donelson has helped utility companies retain and/or secure truly fair compensation for utility systems valued in excess of $2 billion.
Condemnation matters place us at the intersection of engineering, finance, operations, and public service obligations. As a result, we develop a granular understanding of how utilities actually and technically operate, plan and prioritize projects, evaluate alternatives, and justify investments – knowledge that cannot be gained through regulatory proceedings alone.
This combination of regulatory capability and hands-on condemnation litigation experience allows us to advise utilities with a more complete understanding of their operational and business realities. Clients benefit from counsel who appreciate not only what the regulations require, but how those requirements play out in the development, expansion, and protection of critical water infrastructure.