Practice Strengths

Our Project Development and Finance Team includes a core group of 25 lawyers located in California, Colorado, Florida, New York, Ohio, Texas and Washington, DC. The team is supported by other lawyers in our various offices as needed for  tax, regulatory, land use and environmental issues that arise in the course of the siting, permitting, development and financing of a typical large-scale project. Members of our team have experience in handling all aspects of the development, acquisition, financing and restructuring of a variety of power plants (natural gas- and coal-fired facilities, cogeneration facilities, and renewable energy projects), ethanol plants, coal gasification facilities, natural gas and oil pipelines, terminals and storage facilities, telecommunication projects and industrial and infrastructure projects.

We have substantial experience in the various federal and state regulatory matters related to the development and financing of energy, telecommunications and infrastructure projects. We have appeared regularly before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Securities Exchange Commission, the Federal Communications Commission, the Environmental Protection Agency and regulatory commissions and agencies in more than 30 states. Our federal policy group provides additional support in crafting legislative solutions, providing input on Congressional efforts and working with offices within the executive branch responsible for the formulation and administration of various aspects of federal policy.

We represent a broad range of clients involved in project development and finance, including project sponsors and developers, construction contractors and operators, commercial banks, export credit agencies, underwriters and institutional investors. Our team also has significant experience in handling mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and strategic alliances and other related transactions involving energy, telecommunications and infrastructure companies and projects.

Some of our team members' representative experience includes:

Carbon Trading

• Represented a publicly traded international producer and trader of greenhouse gas emission reduction credits in connection with joint development agreements, debt financings and carbon emissions sales and marketing agreements in Europe, Latin America and Asia.

Coal-Fired Power Projects

• Represented the sponsors of a 1,200 MW coal-fired power plant in Nevada.

Coal Gasification Facilities

• Represented the underwriters in connection with the bond financing of a 580 MW integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) power station.

Cogeneration Projects

• Represented the developers of a 60 MW oil-fired cogeneration facility on the Island of Hawaii.

Construction and Equipment Supply

• Represented the owners in the negotiation of an engineering, procurement and construction management contract for a $1 billion mine processing plant and infrastructure project in Chile.
• Represented the owners in negotiation of an engineering, procurement and construction management contract for a $1.2 billion mine processing plant and infrastructure project in Madagascar.
• Represented the owners in the negotiations of a contract mining agreement and engineering and construction contracts for gold mines in Mexico and Nevada.
• Represented Wärtsilä in the negotiation of an engineering, procurement and construction contract and an equipment supply contract for two natural gas-fired power projects in California.
• Represented a contractor in connection with the negotiation of a design/build installation contract for the retrofit and expansion of cogeneration facilities at an oil refinery in California.

Energy Trading and Power Sales Arrangements

• Represented a private equity fund in the restructuring of fuel supply and power sales arrangements for a natural gas-fired cogeneration project in Colorado.
• Represented a joint venture of two irrigation districts in Northern California in structuring and implementing a power auction of 100 MW of hydroelectric power.
• Represented an investor-owned utility in the negotiation of tolling and power marketing agreements for natural gas-fired power projects in Florida and Louisiana.
• Represented the owners of a geothermal power project in California in the restructuring and buyout of power sales arrangements with the purchasing electric utility.

Ethanol Plants

• Represented an institutional investor in connection with its equity investment in a 55-million gallon-per-year (MGY) ethanol facility in Michigan.
• Represented the underwriters in connection with the bond financing of a $110 million 55 MGY ethanol facility in Ohio.
• Represented the sponsors of a 50 MGY ethanol facility in Ohio.
• Represented the sponsors of a 100 MGY ethanol facility in North Dakota.

Natural Gas-Fired Power Projects

• Represented the senior lenders in the $340 million limited recourse financing of a 763 MW gas-fired combined cycle power plant in Ankara, Turkey.
• Represented the senior lenders in the simultaneous $2 billion limited recourse financing of 1,540 MW, 1,520 MW and 770 MW gas-fired combined cycle power plants in Western Turkey.
• Represented the senior lender in connection with the project financing of the 1,200 MW Ilijan gas-fired combined cycle power plant in the Philippines.
• Represented the sponsors in connection with the development of the 525 MW natural gas-fired Valladolid power project in Mexico.

Natural Gas and Oil Pipeline and Terminal Projects

• Represented an international consortium consisting of companies from Argentina, Brazil, Canada and Chile in connection with the development of a 600 km natural gas pipeline across southern Brazil.
• Represented the developer in connection with the negotiation of project agreements for the development and construction of an oil terminal project in the Port of Los Angeles, including agreements with respect to off-take services and vessel emissions.

Renewable Energy Projects

• Represented the developer of a large-scale wind energy project in Nevada.
• Represented the developer in connection with the development and financing of six hydroelectric facilities in New York, Massachusetts and Virginia.
• Represented the developer in connection with the development and financing of several geothermal projects in Nevada.
• Represented the developer in connection with the development and financing of several waste-to-energy projects in California, Florida, New York and New Jersey.

Sports Facilities

• Represented a Major League Baseball team in connection with the development, construction, financing and operation of new ballpark facility constructed as part of an major downtown economic redevelopment project.
• Represented the owner and developer of a minor league baseball facility.

Steel Manufacturing Facilities

• Represented the developers of the SeverCorr project in connection with a $440 million project financing of a steel manufacturing facility in Mississippi.

Telecommunications Projects

• Represented Pacific Crossing in the restructuring and refinancing of a trans-Pacific fiber optic network system, originally constructed at a cost of over $1.5 billion.
• Represented the developers in connection with the development and financing of a $150 million festoon submarine 500-mile fiber-optic network system along the coast of California.
• Represented Siemens as equipment supplier and lender to a $100 million terrestrial fiber-optic network in Mexico.

Energy Industry Joint Ventures

• Represented GE Power Systems in the formation and restructuring of a joint venture between GE and Gener S.A., one of the largest electric utilities in South America.
• Represented GE Power Systems in the formation and restructuring of a joint venture between GE and one of the largest electric utilities in Italy to provide operations and maintenance services for power plants located in Italy, Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia and Turkey.

Energy Mergers and Acquisitions

• Represented an oil and gas services company in a $3 billion public-public merger of equals.
• Represented a public-traded independent power company in the $800 million acquisition of three gas-fired power plants totaling over 4,000 MW from a California investor-owned utility.
• Represented a large publicly-traded investor-owned utility in its bid to acquire Sierra Pacific and Nevada Power.
• Represented an oil and gas production company in a $550 million transaction structured as a front-end tender offer/back-end merger.
• Represented a subsidiary of a major investor-owned electric utility in connection with its acquisition of interests in geothermal power projects in California and Nevada.
• Represented a New York-based investment fund in a proposed acquisition of an oil and gas loan portfolio.
• Represented a European electric utility in its bid to purchase a large power plant in Brazil.
• Represented a consortium of Japanese utilities in its bid to purchase a portfolio of U.S. power plants.
• Represented a Japanese electric utility in connection with its acquisition of interests in a 330 MW hydroelectric power project in the Philippines.
• Represented the State of California in its proposed purchase of Southern California Edison's transmission assets during the California power crisis.
• Represented the purchaser in the $105 million management-led leveraged buyout of an exploration and production company.

Recognition

• The Best Lawyers in America lists more than 20 of our lawyers in various business-related categories.
• We were lead counsel to the sponsors of the SeverCorr project, a $440 million project financing of a steel manufacturing facility in Mississippi, named the “2005 North American Industrial Deal of the Year” by Project Finance magazine.
• A member of our team was one of the lead attorneys for the senior lenders in the Baymina Power project financing, named the 2002 Europe, Middle East and Africa "Power Deal of the Year" by Project Finance International.
• A member of our team was one of the lead attorneys for the senior lenders in the Gebze, Izmir, and Adapazzari Power project financings, named the "2000 Euromoney Project Finance Deal of the Year" Award by Project Finance International.