Experience

Jody L. Williams is a partner in HRO’s Salt Lake City office and a member of the Executive Committee. She is a member of the Natural Resources and Real Estate Practice Groups where she primarily practices water rights, natural resources, energy, and utility law. Ms. Williams has wide-ranging experience representing purchasers and sellers of water rights, licensing and permitting complex private and public water development projects, permitting energy development, acquiring administrative approval to change the beneficial use of water, and performing due diligence review of water rights. She has negotiated complex public/private agreements regarding water regulated under an interstate compact. Ms. Williams has experience with state and federal water regulating and permitting agencies, representing developers of energy generation projects, environmental mitigation planning and acquisition of water rights for developers and energy generating facilities. She understands the complex competing demands for water in the West and the political, economic, and social contexts in which disputes arise and has negotiated resolution of these conflicts with public interest groups. Her clients include electric utilities, water conservancy districts, developers, ranchers, and water companies.

Prior to joining HRO, Ms. Williams practiced water law and energy development law in-house at PacifiCorp, an electric utility operating in Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Oregon, Washington, and California, and with the law firm of Kruse, Landa, Maycock & Ricks, LLC.

Ms. Williams was appointed by President Clinton, and reappointed by President Bush, to the Utah Reclamation Mitigation Conservation Commission, a federal agency responsible for mitigating environmental impacts from developing Utah’s Colorado River apportionment by the Central Utah Project. She served as chair of the Utah Wildlife Board and chair of the Utah State Bar Energy & Natural Resources Committee, from which she received the “Lawyer of the Year” award. Ms. Williams is recognized in the "Best Lawyers in America" and has been included in the annual "Utah Legal Elite" in Utah Business Magazine.

Publications

An Introduction to The Law of Utah Water Rights, Utah Bar Journal Vol. 4, No. 1, January 1991.

A Brief Overview of the Endangered Species Act, Utah Bar Journal, Vol. 6., No. 9, November 1993.

Professional & Community Affiliations

Identified as one of 30 businesswomen to watch by Utah Business Magazine

Utah State Bar Energy, Natural Resources & Environmental Law Section, Lawyer of the Year, 1994-1995

Utah State Bar Energy, Natural Resources & Environmental Law Section, Chair, 1991-1992

Utah Reclamation Mitigation and Conservation Commission, Chair, February 2001-present

Utah State Wildlife Board, Chair, November 1993-May 1995