Our Team

PATRICK GIORDANO, MANAGING DIRECTOR

Prior to forming Giordano & Associates, Ltd. in April 1996, Mr. Giordano was a partner at the national law firm of Foley & Lardner from 1989 to 1996 where he headed the energy practice in the firm’s Chicago office. In that capacity, he extensively represented the City of Chicago in regulatory litigation with ComEd and Peoples Gas before the Illinois Commerce Commission and in the courts. Mr. Giordano also is President and CEO of the energy consulting and brokering firm GEV Corp.

Before joining Foley & Lardner in 1989, Mr. Giordano was supervisor of the Public Utilities Division for former Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, who was then State’s Attorney of Cook County, from 1980 to 1988. Mayor Daley has called Patrick “one of the most knowledgeable experts on energy matters in the nation.”

Some of Mr. Giordano’s professional achievements include the following:

• Convincing the Illinois Legislature to reject ComEd’s reverse auction procurement plan, which resulted in the creation of the Illinois Power Agency, a competitive electricity procurement process, and energy efficiency and renewable energy standards.
• Achieving the inclusion by USEPA of demand response in the final Clean Power Plan (CPP) as an option for reduction of carbon emissions from existing power plants.
• Principal player in the development and passage of the Illinois Electric Service Customer Choice and Rate Relief Law of 1997.
• Negotiating and closing many of the first competitive electricity supply contracts in Illinois for large customers including Sears (Willis) Tower.
• Successfully representing notable clients including City of Chicago, Aqua Building, John Hancock Center, and 311 S. Wacker.
• Procuring hundreds of electricity supply contracts and millions of dollars in refunds and credits for electricity customers from the competitive suppliers for billing errors.
• Acting as lead consumer negotiator of a settlement of three major cases that fixed significant problems in the Illinois retail electricity market and resulted in substantial cost savings and energy efficiency measures for consumers.
• Negotiating and closing three long-term electricity supply contracts that saved more than $110 million for the Chicago Public Schools.
• Directing Giordano & Associates, Ltd.’s legal work that brought to fruition Illinois’ first utility-scale wind energy project, the 50 MW Mendota Hills Wind Farm.
• Brokering the purchase of renewable energy certificates for a number of large buildings.
• Settling litigation with ComEd on behalf of various school districts and commercial and industrial customers regarding curtailments of electricity after prevailing in the Illinois Appellate Court.
• On behalf of the City of Chicago, a settlement with ComEd regarding its coal contracts which resulted in $2 billion in savings for consumers over the life of those contracts and an additional $102.5 million in consumer refunds.

Mr. Giordano is a member of the Illinois bar and an inactive member of the Oregon bar. He also is a member of the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals and U.S. District Court Northern District Trial Bar. Mr. Giordano received his J.D. from Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, Oregon in 1979 and a B.A. from Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts in 1974.

LAWRENCE A. WEISS,  OF COUNSEL

Lawrence A. Weiss has more than three decades of experience providing legal and consulting services to end users and alternative energy providers on electric energy issues. Mr. Weiss’s focus on behalf of Giordano & Associates has included negotiating utility rate reduction agreements on behalf of consumers, counseling renewable project developers on utility interconnection agreements, and conducting feasibility studies on the legal viability of on-site generation.

Mr. Weiss also analyzes federal and state regulatory and policy trends relating to the rise of competition in the electricity industry and formulates strategies to deal with the emerging competitive environment.

Mr. Weiss was previously employed by the Federal Energy Administration and Federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Mr. Weiss’s professional credentials include:

• Co-publisher of Cogeneration Publications and publisher of the Cogeneration Monthly Letter and Wheeling & Transmission Monthly.

• Co-author of Cogeneration and Small Power Production Manual and Wheeling & Transmission Manual.

• Partner in Power Executive newsletter and member of the Power Value magazine advisory committee.

• Presentation of numerous seminars for the Energy Daily, Gas Daily, and the Association of Energy Engineers.

Mr. Weiss is an active member of the District of Columbia Bar and an inactive member of the Pennsylvania Bar. He graduated from the University of Virginia and University of Georgia Law School.