Mr. Dowd specializes in the representation of corporations, cooperatives, states and municipalities in rail transportation and utility fuel supply and logistics matters. His expertise extends to strategic development, commercial negotiation, arbitration, and litigation in civil courts as well as before regulatory agencies.

Mr. Dowd has been active on behalf of electric utilities in most of the significant rail merger and rail coal rate disputes arising before Surface Transportation Board and its predecessor agency since the late 1970s. These include the ground-breaking San Antonio rate litigation, the BN-Santa Fe, and UP-SP mergers, and litigated on settled coal rate cases brought by utilities such as Dayton Power & Light, Arizona Electric Power Cooperative, American Electric Power and Kansas City Power & Light Company. Mr. Dowd represented the State of New York and Consumers Energy Company in connection with the acquisition and division of Conrail. He also has assisted electric utilities in all regions in connection with the development and implementation of strategies for the economic procurement of fuel supply and transportation services, both for existing and new generation resources.

Mr. Dowd has played a major role in the evolution of legal and regulatory standards affecting the growth of the regional railroad industry. In addition to assisting entrepreneurs in establishing new regional railroads, Mr. Dowd acted as lead counsel in a number of cases before the STB and the federal Courts of Appeals which defined the nature of the relationships between small railroads and their employees.

Among Mr. Dowd's published articles is "Break the Bottleneck: Recent Decisions Ensure That Bottleneck Rates Remain a Problem on the Rails." (Legal Times, August 18, 1997)(co-authored with Robert D. Rosenberg). He is also a frequent presenter at rail transportation and electric utility-related conferences.