Most Highly Regarded Firms: Texas 2008 - Project Finance
Ten lawyers from seven firms are listed in this chapter.
They all have a proven record representing sponsors and lenders in project financing and refinancing transactions. Considering the practice area and the state that this chapter focuses on, unsurprisingly, many of the lawyers we feature here are also included in the oil and gas chapter.
Vinson & Elkins LLP is one of three firms to boast two entries in this chapter. "Superstar" Douglas Bland co-heads the firm's worldwide project finance and development practice and is also a member of the energy, and merger and acquisition groups. He has a national and international practice that includes a focus on electric power. Marcia Backus has a broad-based energy transactional practice and has represented the developer of power plants in California as well as various projects in Venezuela. Backus is "very well regarded" for her knowledge of renewables and other non conventional energy projects.
The two entries for Andrews Kurth LLP are the "brilliant" Timothy Unger and Dahl Thompson. Unger has worked on the development and portfolio project financing of five power generating facilities located in the US as well as the development and financing of the world's largest single-train methanol facility in Trinidad. He was praised by one competitor as a "leader". Unger is based in Houston, but also spends time in the firm's representative office in Beijing. Thompson's practice has a particular emphasis on energy infrastructure projects, including electrical gas-fired power plants, wind power facilities and other renewable energy projects. He also has an international dimension to his practice, having advised a project company in all aspects of the development and financing of a power plant in India and its subsequent expansion.
John Mauel is the local section leader for the finance practice at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP in Houston. Regarded by his peers as "very strong", Mauel is another practitioner with an international practice and has been involved in financings relating to the US, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Brazil, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Qatar, Thailand and Vietnam. Sources also reported hearing "very good things" about Todd Culwell, who appears in this book for the first time. Culwell is also based in Houston and has the additional experience of completing a two-year in-house secondment with an international energy company. He represents developers in their project financings across the energy sector.
At Fulbright & Jaworski, Brian Bradshaw's practice places an emphasis on the financing of LNG liquefaction and regasification terminals and other large-scale energy infrastructure projects. His cross-border experience and knowledge of international markets, especially South America, is a real asset. Bradshaw is a "good guy and a very good lawyer". John Cogan moved from Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP to McDermott Will & Emery LLP in 2008 and remains one of the most highly nominated practitioners in the research. As head of the firm's global projects and infrastructure practice group, Cogan's practice is international, and he has notable experience in Latin America, East Asia, the Middle East and Africa.
Daniel Rogers is an "excellent choice" from King & Spalding LLP and has a practice that focuses on energy-related infrastructure projects. Prior to joining the firm, Rogers was general counsel of the global LNG and Middle East business units of Enron. In private practice, Rogers has represented Merrill Lynch in a refinery expansion financing involving a crude oil refinery in Papua New Guinea. Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP is another player in the market and is home to John Ale. Ale was described on numerous occasions as "superb" and is another practitioner with in-house experience - he served as executive director and general counsel of water company Azurix. Ale has represented clients in the development, financing and acquisition of energy and water infrastructure projects, including representing a Portuguese electric utility in its $2.9 billion acquisition of a US wind developer.