Kathryn M. Sutton Partner

Kathryn M. Sutton is a partner in Morgan Lewis's Energy Practice. Ms. Sutton represents nuclear utility clients in licensing, regulatory and adjudicatory matters.

Ms. Sutton is actively involved in licensing a new generation of nuclear power plants.  For example, she represented one of the first applicants to successfully obtain an early site permit from the NRC in 2007, an action prefatory to the construction and operation of new reactors of advanced design.  Ms. Sutton also serves as regulatory counsel to a reactor vendor that is preparing a design certification application, as well as to several utilities that are preparing to file combined operating license applications under 10 C.F.R. Part 52.

Equally important to the future of nuclear generation in the U.S., Ms. Sutton routinely advises clients regarding the content and implementation of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) license renewal regulations, including attendant NEPA and CZMA requirements.  In particular, she has represented applicants that have successfully renewed the operating licenses of nearly twenty nuclear units, each for an additional twenty-year term.

At the same time, Ms. Sutton represents nuclear clients with respect to the full panoply of issues involving current term operations.  Representative client activities in this area include construction permit recapture, initial plant licensing, five successful plant restarts from regulatory shutdowns, performance improvement planning, license transfers, regulatory exemptions, and license amendment proceedings. As part of these efforts, she represents clients before the NRC Atomic Safety and Licensing Board in adjudicatory proceedings, as well as in investigations by the NRC Office of Investigations.  Further, she advises a foreign utility about domestic regulatory initiatives, including those related to “safety culture” and “safety conscious work environment,” and the new reactor licensing framework established by the NRC.

Prior to joining Morgan Lewis, Ms. Sutton was a partner at the Washington, D.C. office of a leading Chicago law firm.

Ms. Sutton is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia and before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.