Milbank LLP’s Global Project, Energy and Infrastructure Finance Group has been named a Law360 2022 Project Finance Practice Group of the Year, one of only five law firms to be recognized in this category in 2022. Law360’s annual Practice Group of the Year awards, which received nearly 900 submissions in 2022, honor the teams behind the litigation wins and major deals that resonated throughout the legal industry in the last year.
The Milbank team was recognized for its work as lead counsel advising 12+ lenders for the $9.5 billion New Terminal One project at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, helping EVgo Services LLC negotiate a major electric vehicle charging network expansion, and assisting other companies secure financing for carbon sequestration, electric buses and shipping fleet upgrades.
Dan Bartfeld, practice group leader of the firm’s Global Project, Energy and Infrastructure Finance Group, spoke with Law360 about the Group’s high-profile work in 2022, significant growth, and trends for 2023. Speaking to the firm’s role as lead counsel for more than a dozen lenders on the New Terminal One project, which once complete will be a 2.4 million square foot terminal with cutting-edge technology, design and sustainability enhancements, Mr. Bartfeld said, “It's super significant for New York City and global-facing US infrastructure, so we're really proud of having had a lead role on that."
Mr. Bartfeld also highlighted the Group’s significant growth as it expands into the energy transition space, which includes electric vehicle charging networks, battery manufacturing, carbon sequestration, green steel and digital infrastructure in addition to traditional solar and wind development projects. “The entire value chain in the energy infrastructure space is going to be undergoing an energy transition, most of which will be project financed,” Mr. Bartfeld noted. “We’re very confident that whole new industries are going to get swept up with that wave, and we’re very well-positioned to help our clients with that.”
Milbank worked on more than 100 renewable energy projects in 2022, including:
- Representing the investors in the creation of a sustainability-linked bond for Seaspan Corp, the largest global containership lessor, which marked the first time such bonds have been used in the transportation sector. The bonds feature price adjustments based on performance indicators that incentivize Seaspan to meet its environmental goals. Seaspan raised $500 million in private placements, allowing it to build vessels with more efficient designs and lower-carbon fuel sources and upgrade its containership fleet.
- Advising Summit Carbon Solutions in connection with its successful completion of equity fundraising efforts, which resulted in more than $1 billion in total equity commitments from SK E&S Co., TPG Inc. and Continental Resources, Inc. This is the largest carbon capture and sequestration project of its kind in the world and is on track to be operational by early 2024. The project will capture and permanently store up to 20 million tons per year of carbon dioxide from dozens of ethanol and other industrial facilities across the Midwestern United States.
- Advising EVgo, which owns and operates the largest public fast charging networks for electric vehicles in the United States, in negotiations with Pilot Co. and General Motors for the first major project in its EVgo eXtend initiative, which aims to address “range anxiety” about long-distance travel in electric vehicles to accelerate consumer adoption of zero-emission vehicles. The project will deploy 2,000 charging stalls at up to 500 Pilot Flying J travel centers along US highways across more than 40 states.
- Advising Colombia-based Fanalca and France-based Transdev in connection with the approximately $150 million financing for the Green Móvil project, which includes the deployment of an additional 406 electric buses in Bogota, Colombia and associated support infrastructure for two SPVs jointly owned by Fanalca and Transdev. With this new addition of electric buses, TransMilenio’s fleet of electric buses will be the largest electric bus fleet in Latin America.
Milbank has one of the largest project, energy and infrastructure groups in the world with over 140 dedicated lawyers in its offices in the Americas, Europe and Asia. In the past five years, the firm has acted as the lead legal advisor in a wide variety of power, energy, oil/gas, natural resources and other infrastructure projects worldwide that mobilized hundreds of billions of dollars of capital. The firm has also been recognized as “Latin America Legal Advisor of the Year” and "North America Legal Advisor of the Year” by Proximo, “Best Infrastructure Law Firm” by LatinFinance, “Banking & Finance Legal Adviser of the Year” by Bonds & Loans Latin America & Caribbean Awards, and “Law Firm of the Year” by Power Finance Risk Awards.
Read the full article “Project Finance Group of the Year: Milbank” here.
See the full list of Law360’s 2022 Practice Groups of the Year here.
