The College of Law welcomes Sharon McIlany, '89, this week as part of the Nebraska Alumni Association's Alumni Masters Week. McIlnay will spend time at the College on Thursday and Friday of this week, spending time visiting with students and faculty. There are several opportunities to interact with McIlnay while she is here:
- Students are encouraged to attend McIlany's All-School Lecture on Thursday at noon in Hamann Auditorium. La Paz will be served for lunch to those who RSVP in ROSCOE by end of day Tuesday.
- Students can meet with McIlnay in small groups or individually. Appointment times are available on both Thursday and Friday. Students can sign-up for one of those times in ROSCOE.
MCILNAY has worked for over 20 years as a legal advisor to clients in all aspects of global and domestic project development, acquisitions and divestitures, joint venturing and operations.
Sharon is a Member of Matias Energy LLC, an energy-industry focused consulting and project development company formed in 2007 by Sharon and her business partner, Tom Miller. Matias Energy provides international and domestic energy infrastructure project consulting and management services, including support for project development, ownership and operation, acquisition and divestiture.
Prior to forming Matias Energy, Sharon served as Vice President and General Counsel of CMS Enterprises Company, the non-utility subsidiary of CMS Energy located in Jackson, Michigan. While at CMS she had overall legal responsibility for approximately $7 billion of independent power production, electric distribution and natural gas transmission, storage, gathering and processing assets located across North and South America, Australia, the Middle East and India.
During her time at CMS, Sharon also acted as Vice President and General Counsel of CMS Gas Transmission Company and CMS Generation Co as well as Chief Counsel for Northern Hemisphere Development.
One of her representative projects at CMS included leading the legal efforts of the development of the Atacama project, a $1 billion integrated natural gas pipeline and electric generation project in Argentina and Chile. She was also lead attorney for CMS in a landmark international arbitration case successfully brought under the rules of the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes against the Republic of Argentina.
Sharon has had comprehensive experience directing legal strategy for numerous complex disputes in both arbitration and litigation, including the successful conclusion of several political risk insurance cases before the London Court of International Arbitration.
McIlnay has extensive transactional experience and led the legal efforts of more than $10 billion worth of acquisitions and divestitures around the world, including the $1.1 billion sale of CMS Enterprises’ assets to the Abu Dhabi National Energy Company in 2007.
Prior to joining CMS Energy Ms. McIlnay was an associate in the corporate law department of Clark, Klein and Beaumont (now Clark Hill PLC) in Detroit, Michigan.
From 1980 -1986 she was an Assistant Professor of business at Doane College in Crete, Nebraska where she was named Director of the A.R. Kinney Business Program and Outstanding Educator.
Sharon earned a bachelor’s of arts degree in journalism, a master’s of business degree and a juris doctor degree, cum laude, from the University of Nebraska, where she was the Managing Editor of the Nebraska Law Review.