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Bob D. Sweetin
Attorney, Shareholder
EDUCATION
University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law, J.D.,
2011
Brigham Young University, B.S.,
2008
aBOUT
Brent joined Davison Van Cleve in 2019 after representing residential and small commercial utility customers for six years as an Assistant Attorney General in Utah and Colorado. Brent has represented both state and private interests before public utility commissions in the inter-mountain west on issues including rate cases, resource and demand side management planning, renewable and distributed generation policies, and power purchase agreements. Specifically, and in particular, Brent represented residential interests in cost of service gas proposals in both Utah and Colorado, Including Questar’s (now Dominion) WexPro II proposal, as well as Xcel Energy’s Advanced Grid Intelligence and Security initiative and the Colorado Energy Plan.
Brent also represented state interests related to public utility taxation as a Special Assistant Attorney General in Montana. His time in Montana in private practice also allowed for experience in water law, public lands law, and environmental remediation efforts under RCRA and CERCLA, as well as electric utility matters before the Montana Public Service Commission. His current practice with Davison Van Cleve is focused on contested regulatory proceedings in the Northwest and Rocky Mountain regions.
Brent earned an LL.M. in environmental and natural resources law, with an emphasis on energy law and policy, from the University of Denver, and graduated cum laude from Vermont Law School’s top ranked environmental law program. During law school, Brent was a student clinician in Vermont Law School’s Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic, addressing issues involving RCRA, de-listing of eastern gray wolves under the Endangered Species Act, and Clean Water Act thermal discharge matters related to the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant. He also holds an MS in zoology, having invested seven years studying bat habitat use patterns across the Great Basin on behalf of numerous state and federal agencies; an opportunity that allowed for exploration of numerous abandoned hard-rock mines and caves across the Inter-Mountain West.
When away from utility law, Brent can be found teaching his children to tie dry flies and put them to good use, practicing Tae Kwon Do, or exploring the mountains in the sun or snow.
Admitted in Colorado and Oregon
Admitted and inactive in, Utah and Montana
aBOUT
Bob has practiced law in some form or another for every branch of government, at each level of government, giving him a big-picture view and real-life experience in how governmental entities interact with one another and regulated industries. Bob was raised in Las Vegas, Nevada. Upon graduating high school, he attending Brigham Young University. While attending BYU, Bob took two years away from his college studies to live in Northern Chile where he learned fluent Spanish and gained an undying love for empanadas.
Upon returning from Chile and finishing his studies at BYU, Bob attended University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law where he was Student Body President. While at McGeorge, Bob had a transformative experience when he received a legal internship with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. While working for the Majority Leader, Bob worked on the confirmation hearings for Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Sonia Sotomayor. Bob was subsequently granted a clerkship at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California where he did research and writing work for major crimes including drug trafficking, interstate human trafficking and terrorism. Bob was then granted a position as a misdemeanor prosecutor with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, prosecuting dozens of cases to verdict in front of both judges and juries.
Bob and his wife decided to return home to Nevada in 2011. Bob worked as a law clerk to the Honorable Gloria J. Sturman, Eighth Judicial District Court of Nevada. He then joined the criminal appeals team at the Clark County District Attorney’s Office in Las Vegas, Nevada, briefing cases before the Nevada Supreme Court.
In 2015 Bob was appointed by the Mesquite City Council as the City Attorney for Mesquite, Nevada, the youngest City Attorney in the State. As City Attorney Bob significantly reduced the need to hire outside counsel, renegotiated all collective bargaining agreements on behalf of the City post-recession, and worked as the City’s chief in-house lobbyist before the Nevada Legislature. In 2016 Bob drafted the Mesquite City Charter, Nevada’s first City Charter in over 30 years. In 2017, Bob worked with the Nevada Legislature and the Governor’s Office to ensure the City Charter was adopted in near-unanimous fashion.
Bob has prior experience working in Public Utilities, having worked with the State Legislature, the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada to implement Senate Bill 151 (2015) which allowed for expansion of natural gas services to rural areas. In 2018, Mesquite was finally granted approval for natural gas services for the first time in its 34 year history. Bob also assisted in coordinating the Mesquite City Council’s historic resolution regarding Energy Choice in Nevada.
In 2018 Bob joined the Davison Van Cleve team. He serves clients in both Oregon and Nevada. He is married with two kids, Holden and Dawson, and two dogs. In his spare time he likes to run Spartan Races and master the newest version of Madden football.
Bob is admitted to practice in the following jurisdictions:
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Nevada
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California