William C. Sippel
wsippel@fletcher-sippel.com (email)(312) 252-1505 (Phone) |
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Bill has over three decades of experience advising and representing clients in a wide range of railroad regulatory matters before federal and state regulatory agencies, including the Surface Transportation Board, the Federal Railroad Administration, and the Illinois Commerce Commission. He specializes in dealing with issues relating to rail line sales and acquisitions, line abandonments, line constructions, rail mergers and consolidations, and issues relating to competition and common carriage. He has extensive experience in drafting, reviewing, interpreting and enforcing railroad joint facility agreements such as trackage rights agreements, and rail crossing and interlocking agreements. He is familiar with the unique issues associated with “shared use” of railroad rights-of-way owned by a public authority for use for both passenger and freight service, having dealt with such issues in shared-use transactions in Illinois, Ohio, Utah, Texas and Florida. He has been involved in virtually every major rail merger over the past 30 years. He serves as outside general counsel to several small or medium-sized railroads that have limited or no in-house legal staff and regularly assists cities, counties, ports and state departments of transportation with rail-related projects or issues.
Bill served as Senior General Attorney for the Milwaukee Road, Chicago and General Counsel-Administrative Law and Contracts for the Soo Line Railroad, Minneapolis. In 1987, he became a partner in the Chicago office of Oppenheimer Wolff & Donnelly and served as Managing Partner of that office for three years. He is one of the founding partners of Fletcher & Sippel LLC.
Education
Loyola University of Chicago School of Law, Chicago, Illinois; Juris Doctorate
Loyola University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois; BA in History
Bar Admissions
Illinois
Northern District of Illinois
Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals
First Circuit Court of Appeals
Associations
Association of Transportation Law Professionals
Member, Steering Committee, Sandhouse Gang, McCormick School of Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois