Commissioner Lawrence Brenner

Lawrence Brenner was appointed to the Maryland Public Service Commission in April 2007. As an adjunct to his responsibilities on the PSC, he also serves as Chairman of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Commission, formed by interstate compact among Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia to regulate private sector passenger carriers regionally. He is the Commission’s representative on the Boards of the Organization of PJM States (President, 2014-15) and the Mid-Atlantic Conference of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (President, 2010-11). He also chaired (2011-15) the Mid-Atlantic Distributed Resources Initiative, formed by seven state utility commissions in collaboration with federal and regional authorities to facilitate cost-effective distributed resources, demand response and energy efficiency.

Prior to joining the PSC, Commissioner Brenner was the Deputy Chief Administrative Law Judge for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), where previously he had been an administrative law judge. In addition to deciding cases as a trial judge, he had extensive experience at FERC as a mediator in complex cases, serving at the joint request of opposing parties.

Previously, he was a judge for the U.S. Department of Labor and U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). Prior to his appointment as a judge, Commissioner Brenner had been in private practice and had served in supervisory and attorney positions with the NRC. He is admitted to practice law in Maryland, the District of Columbia and New York.

Commissioner Brenner received his Juris Doctor law degree from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1973 and his B.A. in Economics from Brooklyn College in 1967. He won the best brief award in the annual law school moot court competition. He was in the Army from 1968-1970, including service in Vietnam.

Commissioner Brenner is a past president of two administrative law judge professional associations: The Forum of U.S. Administrative Law Judges (2003-05); and the Federal Administrative Law Judges Conference (2002-03).