Max Minzner, general counsel with Arcadia Power.

A former top lawyer for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and ex-Big Law partner has joined renewable energy services company Arcadia Power Inc. as the startup's first general counsel. 

Max Minzner arrived at the company's Washington, D.C., headquarters Monday after having spent the past two years as a partner in Jenner & Block's energy practice. He joined the firm after serving as general counsel of the energy commission from 2015 to 2017. 

As Arcadia's GC, Minzner will oversee legal and policy issues at the state and federal levels. He now leads the legal department of a company that was founded in 2014 and operates an online platform that customers use to link their utility accounts to wind and solar energy options. Last year, the company announced it had raised $25 million in a Series B funding round. 

"I believe that Arcadia Power is leading the way in bringing more choice to consumers and clean energy to the grid. I joined because the stellar and innovative team at Arcadia is helping shape the electric industry during a time of transformative change," Minzner wrote Tuesday in an email. 

"I am looking forward to the opportunity to work with the extraordinary leadership team at a company committed to making clean energy an easy choice across the country," he added. "I am excited to bring my experience in power markets and energy regulation to lead the legal function at Arcadia Power and helping the company grow and thrive in the coming years."

While he was the energy commission's chief lawyer, Minzner oversaw litigation in the U.S. Supreme Court cases of Federal Energy Regulatory Commission v. Electric Power Supply Association and Hughes v. Talen Energy Marketing, which centered on conflicts of state and federal jurisdiction in energy regulation.

"Max's deep knowledge of energy markets and experience working with regulators and utilities will be crucial in the coming years to help us expand our offerings on the platform," Arcadia founder and CEO Kiran Bhatraju said in a written statement. 

Earlier in his career, Minzner had a four-year stint as an assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York before taking teaching positions at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University and, later, The University of New Mexico School of Law, where he also served as associate dean. He is a Yale Law School alum.

His late mother, Pamela Minzner, was the first female chief justice of the New Mexico Supreme Court. She is a Harvard Law School graduate—as is Max Minzner's father, Richard Minzner, a former majority leader for the New Mexico House of Representatives.