PROFESSIONAL EMPLOYMENT AND RELATED ACTIVITY
I was a founder of the project finance practice of Chadbourne & Parke LLP. I left that law practice to become Vice President and Senior Banker in the leading project finance business of Citibank N.A, where I was responsible for originating, structuring, underwriting, and syndicating large non-recourse financings for power and infrastructure projects. Thereafter I was serially a partner in the energy practices of the law firms of Porter & Travers LLP, King & Spalding LLP, Torys LLP, and Dickstein Shapiro, LLP. I joined the Rimon law firm as a partner in 2012 when it consisted of 22 attorneys. I served as Rimon’s Managing Partner briefly and take pride and professional pleasure in the growth of its unique business model to a global presence of more than 270 attorneys located in nearly fifty countries.
In 2012 and 2013 I was also employed as a FINRA-registered Managing Director of Marathon Capital, LLC, a leading boutique investment bank specializing in providing M&A and financial advisory services to clients in the global renewable energy, energy transition, and power infrastructure industries. Returning to full-time law practice at Rimon as of 2014, I acted as Marathon Capital’s general outside counsel as the bank grew from 19 employees in two offices in the U.S., to over one hundred employees in ten offices in North and South America, London, Europe, and Asia.
I have founded and chaired major conferences of the competitive power industry since 1992, currently including the annual Infocast Projects & Money Conference (See, https://infocastinc.com/downloads/pm-2024-agenda.pdf (infocastinc.com). For a decade in New York City, I founded and hosted the Energy and Environmental Funders Forum for the New York State Center for Economic Environmental Partnership, while serving as a Director of the private New York Environmental Business Association. I have served as a Director of several early-stage companies in the energy field, including Endur, Inc., Ice Energy, Inc., EtherMetrics LLC, E3 Greentech Enterprises, Maxim Power, USA, Inc., and PowerPhase, LLC. I have also served as an Officer in the United States Army.
HONORS AND RECOGNITION
- Best Lawyers New York, New York, Energy Law, Best Lawyers, listed since 2013
- “AV Preeminent,” Highest Rating for both Legal Ability and Ethical Standards, Lexis-Nexis Martindale-Hubbell, since 1997
REPRESENTATIVE SUMMARY OF LEGAL EXPERIENCE
- Counsel to a first-tier U.S. purchaser and seller (not broker) of renewable energy credits and renewable energy
- Negotiating a raw cathode active material marketing, logistics and working capital agreement for a battery recycling process start-up company
- Negotiated joint R&D and product development agreements for a New York startup carbon nanotech manufacturing company
- Negotiated commercial arrangements for a project re-purposing EV batteries, that is funded by a California PUC grant program
- Negotiated commercial arrangements for initial product sales by a metal-hydride battery venture for demonstration and testing
- Developer’s counsel for a 500 kV transmission line and 500 MW pumped storage hydroelectric project in Southern California, including bidding into State and Multi-Municipal Community Energy Storage RFPs
- General outside counsel for a start-up broker-dealer pioneering a patented big-data online platform to facilitate mid-market project financing
- Negotiating turn-key engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) agreements for renewable and other power projects
- Negotiating long-term operation and maintenance, equipment supply and warranty agreements for renewable and other power projects
- Negotiating long-term power purchase agreements for renewable and other power projects
- Negotiated the first sale of distributed thermal energy storage air conditioning systems in the world, to the Southern California Public Power Authority
- Developer’s counsel for a very large underground compressed air long-duration energy storage development project in Ohio, including negotiating title insurance on a void.
- Issuer’s counsel in the initial public offering on the Toronto Stock Exchange of an income trust holding a U.S. company operating 30 landfill biogas facilities across the eastern U.S.
- Developer’s counsel for a combination desalination and renewable fuels project in Tracy, California
- Co-founder and Director of a company developing and commercializing a newly-invented long-duration compressed-air energy storage technology
PUBLICATIONS AND PRESENTATIONS
- Presentation, U.S. Equipment Leasing and Finance Association Energy Subcommittee; April 2021, “Overview of Perspectives for Equipment Leasing and Finance in the U.S. Power Industries”
- Quoted by Inframation News in “Investor Watch: Bernhard Capital Targets US Municipal Utilities,” April 2021
- Co-Presenter, Stafford CLE Webinar, December 2017, “Joint Development Agreements in Renewable Energy Projects”; presented proprietary JDA for early-stage power project development
- Presentation, Business Council of New York State Annual Conference on Renewable Energy 2016: “What is in Store for Renewable Energy in the Future?”
- Author, “Changing Everything Again: Applying Blockchain Technology to the Power Industries Will Be Exciting” Power Finance & Risk, September 9, 2016
- Co-author, “Post-Stimulus Legislation for the Renewable Energy Industry,” The Green Economy, June 2010
- Co-author, Opinion: The Recovery Act and the Green Economy One Year Later,” The Green Economy, April 2010
- Author, “A New PURPA for Green Schools?” Electric Light & Power, March / April 2009
- Co-author, “Limiting Foreign Investment – the Impact of FINSA on the U.S. Utility and Power Sector,” EnergyBiz Magazine, January 2007
- Co-author, “Pragmatic Environmental Diligence Needed to Stay Competitive in Acquisition Race,” Natural Gas & Electricity, April 2007
- Co-author, “Cross-border Liquidity for U.S. Issuers,” Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory, April 2006
- Co-author, “Forging New Financial Instruments,” EnergyBiz Magazine, January 2006
- Founder, Chair and Presenter, Infocast “Projects & Money” conference, 2008-2024
