Derek Brice is an associate in the Birmingham office and a member of the Energy section. He joined the group in 2010. His practice includes all areas of energy, with a special emphasis on litigation and non-litigation matters involving the nuclear power industry.
Derek has extensive experience in the nuclear power and utility industry. During his undergraduate and graduate work in nuclear engineering at Oregon State University, Derek interned at Portland General Electric where he worked one in Trojan’s Plant Systems Engineering and one summer in the Quality Assurance/Quality Control group. He spent the next several years interning in Portland General Electric’s Electrical Distribution Systems Planning group.
Derek’s full-time experience began in the Fuels Design group at the former Washington Public Power Supply System Unit 2 - now Energy Northwest Columbia Generating Station. His experience there included training on plant operations and systems completion of the month-long General Electric Station Nuclear Engineering School. He then joined the Siemens/Framatome/AREVA fuel production facility where he designed two fuel cycles for Entergy’s River Bend Station.
During his years in the Hanford area, Derek was active in the Eastern Washington Section of the American Nuclear Society. He served two years as section secretary. Before heading to law school he also completed the business program at Washington State University.
Derek attended the University of Southern California Gould School of Law and served as an Articles Editor for the Southern California Law Review. After graduating, he honed his litigation and trial advocacy skills in the patent litigation groups of powerhouse firms Kirkland & Ellis and Weil, Gotshal & Manges. In addition to working on some of the largest patent litigation cases ever, he served as prosecutor for the City of Houston, Texas in ten misdemeanor jury trials.
Derek sought out and joined Balch & Bingham’s world-class energy group in 2010 because of its holistic approach to utility client service and its leading position in the global nuclear renaissance.
Derek has been previously admitted, though is currently inactive, in the following jurisdictions:
- California (2005)
- Texas (2008)
- Oregon (2010)
PRIOR EMPLOYMENT