Caitlin M. Shields

Partner
Office Denver
Contact
VCARD

Caitlin is passionate about energy. As a trusted advisor to clients in a variety of network industries, she infuses every engagement with her own energy and passion. Over the past decade, Caitlin has been at the forefront of many emerging trends in the power sector and across network industries. Utilities, telecommunication companies, large customers, railroads, and other stakeholders routinely seek her counsel in state public utility commission proceedings and related federal and court proceedings.

With a particular interest in the convergence of energy and environmental law, her work often involves ratemaking, resource planning, and competition/regulated monopoly issues. Caitlin devotes a significant portion of her practice to providing strategic policy guidance, and finding creative regulatory solutions to issues posed by new and emerging technologies.

Caitlin’s interest in energy and environment aligns with her personal passion for the outdoors and travel. As an avid cyclist and skier, she’s usually willing to take business meetings on the slopes when she’s not in a hearing room.

Representative Engagements
  • On Oct. 13, 2020, Caitlin Shields presented an argument on behalf of Black Hills Energy in the Colorado Supreme Court. The case involved a Colorado Public Utilities Commission complaint from San Isabel Electric Association contending that San Isabel had the exclusive right to provide “station power” to Black Hills’ wind generation facilities that happened to be located in San Isabel’s retail service territory.
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Honors
  • Recognized in Best Lawyers for Energy Law (2024 – 2025)
  • Recognized in Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch for Communications Law and Energy Law (2021-2023)
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Publications
  • Co-Author, 2015 Annual Survey of Environmental Law, Colorado Lawyer.  The Annual Survey of Law is a compilation of updates of Colorado case law, statutory and regulatory developments that has been annually published by Continuing Legal Education Colorado since 1971.
  • “Carbon Capture & Sequestration,” American Bar Association Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources Year in Review (June 2014)
  • “Entering New Terrain: Developing a Framework to Protect the Nation’s Natural Gas Delivery System Against Cyber Attacks,” American Gas Association Legal Forum, Darren Hunter and Caitlin Shields (July 2013)
  • “Wisconsin Oil and Gas Update,” Texas Wesleyan Law Review, Vol. 1, No. 2 (Spring 2013)
  • “Review of Brownfields: A Comprehensive Guide to Redeveloping Contaminated Property,” The Colorado Lawyer, Vol. 40, No. 10 (October 2011)
  • “International Environmental Law & Policy for the 21st Century,” (2nd Rev. Ed.), Ved Nanda and Rock Pring (October 2012)

 

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Speeches and Presentations
  • Spoke at the University of Colorado Law School, Environmental Law Society on the fundamentals of regulated monopoly, emerging issues in the utility space, and the convergence of innovative clean technologies and traditional utility regulation on March 30, 2016.
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Bar Admissions
  • Colorado, 2009
  • Illinois, 2010
Education
  • J.D., University of Denver Sturm College of Law, 2009
  • B.S., University of Colorado at Boulder, with Honors, 2006