Current Employment Position(s)

Partner

Lawyer Overview

Bruce W. Doughty is a partner with Foley & Lardner LLP, where he is a member of the firm's Litigation Department, its Energy Regulation Practice, and its Energy Industry Team. Mr. Doughty has extensive experience in litigation, investigations, and counseling, having assisted clients in a broad variety of industries throughout his career.

Mr. Doughty has litigated in trial and appellate courts around the country, as well as before various administrative agencies. In recent years, Mr. Doughty's litigation practice has ranged from representing the plan administrator in the bankruptcy of a multibillion-dollar information services company, to defending a fiber-optics start-up company and its key employees in trade-secrets litigation brought by an industry-leading competitor. Mr. Doughty also has led an in-depth investigation into the potential liability of directors and officers for the collapse of one of the country's largest cooperatives, which investigation culminated in the filing of a federal lawsuit based on such liability. In addition, Mr. Doughty represented dozens of insurance companies in their successful challenge to the constitutionality of a state tax on their premiums, and then in their recovery of a substantial portion of that tax.

Mr. Doughty's litigation experience extends to a number of other areas, too. Examples include representing a large commercial bank in recovering stolen assets; representing a state agency in defeating an inverse condemnation action brought by landowners; representing a horse-racing operator in having the state supreme court invalidate state licensing proceedings; representing a medical manufacturer in obtaining denial of a former distributor's motion to enjoin the manufacturer's operations based on allegations of wrongful termination and antitrust violations; and representing grandchildren in litigating and successfully resolving complex actions over their grandmother's estate.

In the energy area specifically, Mr. Doughty has focused during the past few years on electric and gas industry issues. He has litigated in multiple rate cases, as well as in rulemakings and other contested proceedings over the operation and reliability of transmission and distribution facilities. Mr. Doughty also has helped prepare detailed reports on reliability for state and local officials, and on multiple occasions has provided energy company clients with legal support for extensive investigations into their management and operations.

Mr. Doughty has broad experience in other energy-related areas as well, including litigation over the operating performance and decommissioning of nuclear power plants; purported class actions concerning utility rates and billing practices; agreements between telecommunications and electric companies regarding joint work and shared facilities; utility investment in Europe; complex contracts and confidentiality agreements between utilities and commercial, industrial, and governmental customers; negotiation and litigation involving utility consultants; and customer complaints regarding utility rates and billing practices.

Named in both 2004 and 2005 as one of Illinois' leading utilities lawyers by the Leading Lawyers Network, Mr. Doughty has written on developments in the electric energy field for a committee of the ABA's Section on Natural Resources, Energy, and Environmental Law. He has also co-authored an executive briefing regarding the Energy Policy Act of 1992.*

Mr. Doughty received his law degree from the University of Chicago, where he was a member of The University of Chicago Legal Forum and was awarded the Joseph Henry Beale Prize for excellence in writing. Prior to attending law school, Mr. Doughty was graduated with honors from Princeton University and was a Rotary Scholar in Hong Kong, where he taught political science at the University of Hong Kong.

Mr. Doughty is admitted to practice in Illinois and before the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

*The Illinois Supreme Court does not recognize certifications of specialties in the practice of law and no award or recognition is a requirement to practice law in Illinois.

Areas of Practice

• Energy Regulation
• Energy

Bar Admissions

• Illinois
• U.S. District Court Northern District of Illinois

Honors and Awards

• One of Illinois' Leading Utilities Lawyers by the Leading Lawyers Network, 2004 - 2005

Past Employment Positions

• University of Hong Kong

Education

• University of Chicago Law School, Chicago, Illinois
  J.D.
  Honors: Joseph Henry Beale Prize
  Honors: Member, The University of Chicago Legal Forum
• Princeton University
  Honors: With Honors

Address

321 North Clark
Suite 2800
Chicago, IL 60654

Phones

(312) 832-4917

Faxes

312-832-4700

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Websites

http://www.foley.com