Shannon S. Broome

Shannon S. Broome is the managing partner of Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP's San Francisco office and the chair of the firm's environmental practice. A chemical engineer who began her career working at an oil refinery, she represents major oil and gas companies in environmental regulation, compliance and litigation matters.

She also works to promote the mentoring and advancement of women in the legal profession and the energy sector. In 2022, she became co-president of the Women's Energy Network of California, a newly launched chapter of a national organization.

"It's important to me because this premiere organization never before had a chapter in California," Broome said. "It is made up of top women in the energy industry, in engineering and in finance. I'm learning from these really smart women who have the substantial knowledge to be successful in what has historically been a male-dominated profession."

At Hunton Andrews, her clients include the Texas Oil and Gas Association, a national trade association of Fortune 500 companies, ExxonMobil Corp., Marathon Petroleum Corp. and the American Iron and Steele Institute.

Broome leads the representation of the Texas Oil and Gas Association, known as TXOGA, in its response to regulations covering methane emissions from upstream and midstream oil and gas operations promulgated by three successive U.S. presidents. In 2020, the Trump Administration's Environmental Protection Administration issued two final rules revising regulations first set out by his predecessor in 2016. Now, the Biden Administration is seeking to reinstate the more stringent 2016 Obama Administration regulations and Broome filed regulatory comments in January 2022 addressing the 150-page plan.

"We're trying to focus on ways the regulations can adapt to new technologies," Broome said, "and not lock in current technologies that we can foresee will become obsolete." She gave the example of required inspection pathways at oil and gas facilities that are being replaced by drone observation.

For client Marathon Petroleum Corp. and its former Speedway convenience store chain, Broome continues to lead the defense in landmark "nuisance" suits filed across the country alleging that energy companies concealed the environmental impacts of the fossil fuels they promoted.

At the U.S. Supreme Court in May 2021, the justices ruled 7-1 in favor of Broome's clients in a long-running conflict over how to decide whether the federal courts are the appropriate forum for such suits by local and state governments. BP plc et al. v. Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, 19-1189 (S.Ct., op. filed May 17, 2021).

The decision will affect similar cases in San Mateo and Rhode Island, in which Broome also represents Marathon.

"Nobody disputes that climate change is important," Broome said. "The question is whether nuisance law is the way to deal with it. Congress and the EPA should be in the forefront here, not litigants in different states."

- John Roemer