BIOGRAPHY

Roger Sowell is a refinery defense attorney, and also advises those involved with operating and designing all process plants, including petrochemical plants, chemical plants, and natural gas plants.  Legal topics include, but are not limited to, regulatory compliance under Clean Air Act, OSHA and NEPA, design liability, litigation due to process upsets and catastrophic events, construction disputes, advanced and optimization process control issues, and evaluating and protecting intellectual property rights, especially trade secrets.

He practices law after a successful 20-year career as a process consulting engineer world-wide.

Bar Admissions

All California courts                                                                       United States District Court for the Central District of California

Education

Juris Doctor (JD) from Southwestern University School of Law, where he externed at the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office, Civil Litigation Division.  While a student at Southwestern, he served as President of the Intellectual Property Law Society, and as class representative to the student governing body. 

B.S. in Chemical Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin, with an emphasis on process optimization and economics. 

Courses in artificial intelligence programming, UCLA

Courses in psychology, California State University Northridge (CSUN) 

Engineering Experience

More than 20 years world-wide engineering experience in the continuous process industries, including more than 75 oil refineries, petrochemical plants, and basic chemical plants. His vast experience led to a keen interest in improving process safety, both by design and careful operation. 

Former employers include Diamond Shamrock Corp., Champlin Petroleum Company, Solomon Associates, Inc., Profimatics, Inc., Cryogenic Experts, Inc., and Roger Sowell & Associates.

Engineering experience includes process engineering, project engineering, construction supervision, startup and guarantee test runs, planning and scheduling, advanced process control feasibility and master plans, oil movement automation, front-end engineering design, grass-roots refinery feasibility studies, plant energy optimization, steam system optimization, advanced process simulation and optimization, and project economic analysis. 

Speeches

"Legal Aspects of the March 23, 2005 Explosion at BP's Texas City Refinery", given September 4, 2008, in Houston, Texas as the keynote address to the South Texas Section of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers at their monthly dinner meeting.  A link to the speech's abstract is here.

"Legal Aspects of the March 23, 2005 Explosion at BP's Texas City Refinery", given June 17, 2008, in Montebello, California at the Southern California Section of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers monthly dinner meeting.  A link to the speech's abstract is here.

"The Three Types of Changed Conditions in California Construction Law", May, 2008, in Los Angeles, California to the construction management team at Los Angeles World Airways, South Airfield Improvement Program.

Publications

"Why a Simulation Does Not Match the Plant", in the March 1998 issue of Hydrocarbon Processing              

"Calculate Cryogenic Pressure Build Flow", co-authored with Mr. Robert Worcester, Jr., in CryoGas International.

Memberships

California State Bar,                                                                      Beverly Hills Bar Association,                                                                 Los Angeles County Bar Association,                                                     American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) (Safety and Health Division)

Certifications

 OSHA Ten Hour Safety Training                                                         UST Operator (Underground Storage Tanks)                                  SCAQMD Dust Certification

Information Technology

FORTRAN, LISP, COBOL, LP, SQL, various internet protocols,                non-linear open-equation optimizers, AI algorithms

Alternative Energy Technologies

Hydrogen, Wind power, Solar power (PV, concentrating solar power, passive), Wave power systems, Tidal power systems, Geothermal, Pumped storage hydroelectric, Ethanol (fermentation, cellulosic),     Biodiesel, Distributed Power Generation systems (DG), Green building, LEED, Water Desalination technologies

State Bar Number is 251451.