Mr. Estes has defended many of the FERC enforcement cases involving electric and natural gas market manipulation allegations that have become public, including representing Barclays Bank PLC, JP Morgan Ventures Energy Corp., DB Energy Trading, LLC, Rumford Paper Company, Dr. Alan Chen and GreenHat. Two of these cases are among the handful to proceed to federal district court, and have involved litigation of several novel questions. He previously defended Energy Transfer Partners in one of the first FERC market manipulation cases, which settled on favorable terms on the eve of trial. He also defended H.Q. in the first complaint case claiming market manipulation. He has navigated many nonpublic FERC enforcement cases to conclusion without sanction.

In addition, Mr. Estes often has played a lead role in complex FERC cases at trial, typically involving market design, market power or market manipulation issues in organized electric markets.