Jay Matthew Gutierrez

Partner

Jay M. Gutierrez is the leader of Morgan Lewis’s Energy Practice. Mr. Gutierrez’s practice focuses on representing companies in a variety of matters before the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), including licensing, inspection, investigation, and enforcement issues.

Mr. Gutierrez has represented numerous utilities that own, operate, and seek to develop nuclear power plants. These representations have involved coordination of such diverse issues as: plant performance and related management issues; responses to NRC investigations; claims of discrimination; new plant initiatives under NRC’s Part 52, including planning for new baseload generation; corporate governance considerations; SEC corporate disclosure issues; co-owner considerations; and Department of Justice referrals. These representations have been at over half of the 104 operating reactors in the United States.

Mr. Gutierrez also has been involved in similar matters within the Department of Energy complex, including at Yucca Mountain and the Hanford Reservation. In 2007, Mr. Gutierrez was retained by the U.S. Department of Energy to head a team of lawyers in the preparation and defense of a license application for a high-level waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada.

Mr. Gutierrez is also active in advising clients in the area of new nuclear plants. In the 1990s, he played a role in assisting General Electric in obtaining design approval for its Advanced Boiling Water Reactor before the NRC. More recently, he has been on a number of client task forces examining issues associated with new baseload generation, including: the need for power, choice of technology, alternative site considerations, and regulatory and commercial issues associated with project development.

Mr. Gutierrez began his legal career in private practice; however, in response to an increase in litigation following the Three Mile Island accident, Mr. Gutierrez joined the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and served as a hearing attorney in the Office of the Executive Legal Director from 1980-1983. From 1983 to 1989, Mr. Gutierrez was Regional Counsel to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Region I. In that capacity, he provided legal support for NRC inspection and investigation activity throughout the Northeast and, particularly, for the Three Mile Island restart and initial NRC operational readiness assessments as part of licensing decisions for Seabrook, Shoreham, and Limerick.

As regional counsel, Mr. Gutierrez participated in more than 300 NRC escalated enforcement matters involving both power reactors and the NRC’s nuclear materials program. He provided principal legal support for NRC oversight of shutdown plants, such as Peach Bottom and Pilgrim. While at the NRC, he worked closely and extensively with various levels of the staff.

In 1989, Mr. Gutierrez re-entered private practice and became a partner at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP in 1994.

Mr. Gutierrez authored a text in 1995 on Fundamentals of Nuclear Regulation in the United States, which he updated with Alex Polonsky in 2007. He is an active lecturer on the subject before client groups, as well as at industry conferences. His presentations have included: “NRC’s Enforcement Program,” “NRC’s Material Program,” “Federal-State Responsibility for Nuclear Regulation,” “Energy Policy Act of 1992,” as well as “Management Practices to Encourage the Free Flow of Safety Concerns.” Mr. Gutierrez has taught for the past six years at the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (INPO) senior managers course.

Mr. Gutierrez is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia.