PHILADELPHIA, October 7, 2021―Duane Morris announced today that Sheila Slocum Hollis will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award as part of the Women, Influence & Power in Law Awards on October 7 in Washington, D.C. Hosted by Law.com and its Corporate Counsel publication, the Women, Influence & Power in Law Awards 2021 (formerly known as the National Women in Law Awards) honors top women lawyers who have made a remarkable difference in the legal profession ─ whether in shaping the law, achieving outsized results for their clients, being an outstanding jurist or assisting those in need of legal services. Ms. Hollis will be honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award in the Law Firm category.
“This is a richly deserved accolade for Sheila in recognition for her professionalism, leadership and thoughtful contributions to both our firm and our profession, year in and year out. Without a doubt, Sheila has made an impact on the legal community and the practice of law, particularly in the realm of energy law and policy,” said Duane Morris Vice Chairman Thomas G. Servodidio. “On behalf of all of us at Duane Morris, we congratulate Sheila on this important award.”
Ms. Hollis is chair of the Washington, D.C. office, and was the office’s founding managing partner, as well as the founding leader for the firm’s Energy, Environment and Resources Group. She was the first woman to serve on the firm’s Executive Committee, a position she held for more than a decade, and was a member of its Partners Board for 20 years. Ms. Hollis practices in the areas of energy transactional and regulatory law and international and administrative law before government agencies, Congress, state and federal courts and other entities. She focuses on domestic and international energy, water and environmental matters, representing governmental bodies, the power and natural gas industries and other entities.
Ms. Hollis has served twice in federal service. In 1977, she became the first director of the Office of Enforcement of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, establishing the office and its policies and procedures, which remain in place today. She was a charter member of the Senior Executive Service. She began her energy law career as a trial lawyer at the Federal Power Commission from 1974 to 1976, serving as lead counsel on the Pennzoil-United spinoff case. Over the course of her career, she has played a key role in the formation and implementation of energy law and policy. As a professorial lecturer in the law at George Washington University School of Law, she taught energy law for 20 years to over 600 students in the Environmental and Energy Law Program and was recognized by the school for her teaching contributions. She has given hundreds of presentations throughout the world over the course of her career on a broad spectrum of topics, including energy, environment, women’s empowerment issues, international law and cybersecurity. Ms. Hollis is widely published in energy law and policy matters, having co-authored two energy law texts and a large number of articles on energy policy, energy enforcement, natural gas, independent power and cogeneration, hydroelectric energy regulation and related environmental topics.
With a long and venerable career representing clients in matters relating to infrastructure, nuclear power, hydroelectric power and all forms of energy supply sources, natural gas and oil development, transportation and distribution, energy reliability, enforcement and compliance, and international energy policy, Ms. Hollis has received many honors and recognitions from the energy and legal industries. In 2018, she was honored as a “storied energy lawyer” with the Petroleum Economist’s Legacy Award, an award given to outstanding individuals for their industry contributions. In 2017, she was named by Super Lawyers as one of Washington, D.C.’s Top 100 Lawyers overall and one of the Top 50 Women over several years. She is the first energy lawyer to be named to this list. In addition, Ms. Hollis was recognized by the American Bar Association (ABA) as a “Trailblazer,” an honor given to women in law who “changed society.” She was among only 100 women to be so honored for breaking barriers for women in cutting-edge areas of the law. Her personal story is now at the Library of Congress, Harvard Law and Stanford Law libraries. In 2012, Ms. Hollis was inducted as a fellow into the American College of Environmental Lawyers, an honor bestowed upon a select group of lawyers with “distinguished experience and high standards.” Ms. Hollis was also named one of the “50 Key Women in Energy Worldwide” and received the 2011 Lifetime Achievement in Energy in Platt’s Global Energy Awards. She is the first attorney in private practice to receive the Platt’s Award. Ms. Hollis has also been ranked by The National Law Journal as one of the United States’ top 20 energy lawyers and has received the highest possible rating from Martindale-Hubbell’s Peer Review Ratings for over 30 years for professional excellence.
In addition, Ms. Hollis is listed in many biographical directories such as Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business, Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in the World, The World’s Leading Oil and Gas Lawyers and The World’s Leading Project Finance Lawyers. Ms. Hollis was selected for inclusion in Who’s Who Legal Directory for Oil and Gas. (The attorneys included in this publication were selected based on comprehensive, independent survey work with both general counsel and oil and gas lawyers in private practice worldwide.)
Ms. Hollis has served on a myriad of boards, committees and professional associations over the course of her career and has been extremely active in leadership roles in many of those organizations. She was chair of the Standing Committee on the Law Library of Congress of the ABA from 2015 to 2018, and has been appointed by the ABA Board of Governors to be the liaison to the Standing Committee. She also was chair of the Board of Editors of the ABA Journal and chaired the Journal Awards initiative at the ABA. She has a history of 25 years of service in the ABA House of Delegates as the senior delegate of the Section of Environment, Energy and Resources. She was the first woman to serve as president of the Energy Bar Association and holds the distinction of being the only person to serve as both president of the Energy Bar Association and chair of the ABA’s Section of Environment, Energy and Resources (SEER), the leading forum for thousands of lawyers working in areas related to the environment, natural resources and energy. Ms. Hollis also served as president of the Women’s Council on Energy and the Environment for five years and served on the board of the Women’s Bar Association of the District of Columbia. She served a multiyear term on the Advisory Board of the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System.
In addition, Ms. Hollis is chair of the Board of Directors of the United States Energy Association and is now its acting executive director. She also is a member of the Advisory Committee of the North American Energy Standards Board. Ms. Hollis serves on the Board of Trustees of the Center for American and International Law. With an extensive background in international energy law, Ms. Hollis is admitted as an honorary, international member of the Commercial Bar of England and Wales. She serves on the Board of the American Friends of the Royal Society. The Royal Society, founded in 1661, is one of the oldest scientific bodies in the world. Ms. Hollis was honored to be chosen as a delegate of the ABA to the United Nations Rio+20 Conference in 2012. Ms. Hollis also served a three-year term on the Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary and in that capacity was one of the two primary investigators in the nomination of Justice John Roberts to the Supreme Court of the United States. She is a life fellow of the ABA and has been a member of the American Law Institute for 30 years.
Ms. Hollis is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia and Colorado. She is a Colorado native and a graduate of the University of Denver College of Law as well as the University of Colorado at Boulder, cum laude, in general studies and with honors in journalism. She has also studied international law at the University of Exeter in Exeter, Scotland.
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Duane Morris LLP provides innovative solutions to today’s multifaceted legal and business challenges through the collegial and collaborative culture of its more than 800 attorneys in offices across the United States and internationally. The firm represents a broad array of clients, spanning all major practices and industries. Duane Morris has been recognized by BTI Consulting as both a client service leader and a highly recommended law firm.
