RICHARD A. SHORTZ, 66

FIRM: Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP

LAW SCHOOL: Harvard Law School

SELECTED CLIENTS: Edison International, Black Hills Corp., Contango Oil & Gas Corp., Mitsubishi Corp., Shaw Construction, Alta Resources, Synergy Renewables, Southwest Generation, Carson Cogeneration, J-Power Development

YEARS IN PRACTICE: 41

Biggest Deal: The development of 10,000 megawatts of coal-fired plants in Texas for TXU Corp. with a cost of approximately $15 billion.

Most Difficult Deal: The purchase of the 2,000 megawatt Homer City Generation Facility near Pittsburgh for approximately $2 billion for Edison International. This transaction was accomplished immediately after the electric power industry was deregulated in Pennsylvania and New York state, and required approval of the public utility commissions in Pennsylvania, New York state and New Jersey as well as the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in Washington, D.C. The purchase took well over a year to complete.

Best Career Moment: Completing the purchase of all the West Coast assets of Phillips Petroleum Co., including a refinery in San Francisco, eight oil terminals and over 1,000 service stations as the general counsel of Tosco Corp., which was then headquartered in Los Angeles.

Worst: Helping my client transfer seven prestigious golf course communities to its lender after the 2008 financial crisis in lieu of repayment of $1 billion of loans.

Highlight of Past Year: Closing a $1 billion fund for Alta Resources, which is based in Houston and invests in shale gas production in the Marcellus and Fayetteville gas plays in Pennsylvania and Arkansas.

If I Weren’t an Attorney: I would likely be running an energy business in Houston.

My Colleagues Don’t Know: I love theoretical astrophysics, so I spend weekends reading about black holes, string theories and multiverses.