Mr. O'Connor was associated with the law firm of Stein, Mitchell, & Mezines from 1980 to 1982, where he shared responsibility for complex civil litigation cases in federal courts and administrative law litigation before the Federal Trade Commission.

He became a trial attorney with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's (FERC) Office of General Counsel in 1982. Mr. O'Connor worked as legal and policy advisor to FERC Commissioner Charles A. Trabandt from 1985 through 1993. He worked in FERC's Office of General Counsel as an attorney writing Commission orders from 1994 until 1998. During his tenure at the Commission Mr. O'Connor wrote a law review article printed in the Energy Law Journal, Volume 14, No. 1, (1993), entitled Will the Commission's Hydropower Program Revive in the '90s?

In 1998, Mr. O'Connor's leadership on energy policy was recognized when the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee requested that he be detailed from the FERC to the Committee to provide expert advice and assistance to staff on energy policy issues. Mr. O'Connor was heavily involved with the development, passage and brokering of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, including the provisions amending the Federal Power Act and the Natural Gas Act.

Mr. O'Connor's experience includes regulatory practice, FERC and Senate staff leadership and he has a proven record of working with both democrats and republicans in Congress and at the FERC. After almost 24 years of federal service, Mr. O'Connor retired on September 6, 2005.

From September 7, 2005 to March, 2008 Mr. O'Connor was a Partner with the law firm of Ryan, Phillips, Utrecht & MacKinnon in Washington, D.C. where he provided regulatory and legislative counseling to clients in the energy industry. On March 3, 2008, he was hired by Entergy Corporation to lead its Washington, D.C. office as Vice President of Federal Governmental Affairs. During his tenure with Entergy, Mr. O'Connor worked with members of Congress to develop their understanding of Entergy's operational and business models and helped to shape numerous congressional climate and energy legislative initiatives. He also closely followed transmission regulatory activity at FERC, nuclear relicensing proceedings at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and clean air compliance activity at the EPA. On November 8, 2010, Mr. O'Connor returned to the law firm renamed Ryan, MacKinnon, Vasapoli & Berzok, as Of Counsel.

Mr. O'Connor received a B.A. from Fordham University in the Bronx, New York in 1973, and a J.D. from George Mason University School of Law in Arlington, Virginia in 1980. He is a member of the Virginia State Bar and the District of Columbia Bar and is a current member of the Energy Bar Association. Mr. O'Connor is also admitted to practice before the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and the District of Columbia Circuit.