A Day at North Carolina UC
General Counsel Sam Watson and Senior Attorneys Kim Duffley and Len Green serve the North Carolina Utilities Commission.
The PUF team made its way to the North Carolina Utilities Commission in mid-February. They received a warm welcome not only from the Commission but also from the independent and large Public Staff, which intervenes on behalf of the using and consuming public.
PUF: Sam, you're the General Counsel. What is your job like?
Sam Watson: Foremost, I manage the legal Staff at the Commission. As General Counsel and Director of Case Management, I make sure that all of the cases are staffed and that we talk amongst ourselves when we need to - that we're all on the same page. I try to spread out the day-to-day work among the attorneys, and I handle the administrative work and the non-routine business that inevitably comes up.
As members of the Commission's advisory Staff, the attorneys and I act similar to law clerks for a judge where we perform legal research, advise the Commissioners, draft opinions, and then work with other Staff to issue an order embodying the Commission's decision and rationale.